Starved for Information - Rick Steves to the Rescue

While out trip was still nearly 10 months away, both Kris and I were very eager to get the planning started.  Eager may be quite right...we actually couldn't think of much else the first few weeks.  Just about every conversation we had revolved around the vacation.  We were starved for information and to the internet we went.   We visited many blogs and websites, the most useful which are listed to the right.

While doing some Christmas shopping on Amazon in late November I ran across the Rick Steves Travel Guides.  The were pretty inexpensive and the name seemed to be everywhere with books about every far away place.  They had to be good....right?  I didn't really care, they were only $10 and I was starved for information.  I bought the 2012 Rome, Paris and Florence/Tuscany guides and eagerly awaited their arrival.  As an Amazon Prime member I get free 2 day shipping so the wait was not long. 

These books pretty much cover everything.  Chapters include:

• Sights
• Self-Guided Walks and Tours
• Sleeping
• Eating
• Sleeping
• Nightlife
• Connections
• Nightlife

As this was still the early stages of information gathering, I decided to read everything.  I think I read or skimmed almost 300 of the 470 pages of the Rome book the first night.  There is really a lot of valuable information in these books, especially if this is your first trip abroad like it is for us.  I found the initial chapters the most valuable while only skimming the eating and sleeping sections.  The maps were also very helpful, but I found better ones that I will talk about in a future post.  At this point what I valued was the basic general knowledge of traveling to and in Italy along with the recommended sights.  Picking specific restaurants, bars and neighborhoods would come a bit later as there is only so much information you can process at once. 

I am thinking that a more proper review of what we found really helpful should be a post all in itself.  So I say buy these books, and if you wanna know more about why...stay tuned for another post coming soon.