San Marino & Umbria Books

The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria

Marlena de Blasi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With the breathless anticipation that seduced her readers to fall in love with Venice and then Tuscany, Marlena de Blasi now takes us on a new journey as she moves with her husband, Fernando, to Orvieto, a large and ancient city in Italy's Umbria. Having neither an edge to a sea nor a face to a foreign land, it's a region less trampled by travelers and, in turn, less accepting of strangers. So de Blasi sets out to establish her niche in this new place and to win over her new neighbors by doing what she does best, cooking her way into their hearts. (Her recipes are included.)

Rich with history and a vivid sense of place, her memoir is by turns romantic and sensual, joyous and celebratory, as she searches for the right balance in this city on the hill, as well as the right home—which turns out to be the former ballroom of a dilapidated sixteenth-century palazzo.

De Blasi meets and makes friends with an array of colorful, memorable characters, including cooks and counts and shepherds and a lone violinist, and their stories, too, become a part of the tapestry of life that she weaves for herself in Orvieto. With a voice full of wonder, she brings to life these engagingly quirky people and the aloof, almost daunting society that exists in Umbria. Not since Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence has a writer so happily succeeded in capturing the essence of a singular place and in creating a feast for readers of all stripes.

Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria: Revised Edition

James Lasdun, Pia Davis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

James Lasdun and Pia Davis offer forty walks through the spectacular countryside of Tuscany and Umbria. Arranged for the utmost flexibility—from half-day outings easily accessible from a city base to day walks that can be linked together in a series—the itineraries combine the pleasures of walking and eating with one of the most enchanting landscapes in the world. Calling at medieval hill towns, secluded Benedictine abbeys, spring-fed pools, and Etruscan ruins, Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria enables travelers to discover Italy’s finest delights in a singularly rewarding way.

Featuring:

• New and revised walks

• Clear, easy-to-follow maps

• Suggestions for local food and wine and the best restaurants, hotels, and family- run accommodations

• Half-day, full-day, or overnight itineraries

• Practical tips, including information on climate, what to take, what to wear, and much more

The Unofficial Guide to Central Italy: Florence, Rome, Tuscany, and Umbria (Unofficial Guides)

Melanie Mize Renzulli

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The U.S. isn't Disneyland; Tuscany isn't Italy 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

The only people that are really helped by books of this type are the proprietors of the establishments that are recommended. The problem with almost all travel guides is that they very rarely tell us anything we do not already know. Once a book has been in print for about a year, every restaurant recommended, if not a tourist spot in the first place, is now overrun with people flocking there because of the recommendation. It almost invariably follows that quality declines and prices rise. If the restaurant is truly a good one, then you might get lucky and be one of the first 20 or so to visit after the guide comes out; the rest of you are doomed to reach the place after the decline has started. I've been to central Italy perhaps 30 times in the past 10 years; I've never read a restaurant recommendation that I followed....well, only once and the place was a disaster; nouvelle cuisine, very, very French, in the heart of the Chianti Classico. Want a formula for finding a good restaurant in almost anyplace in the countryside? Look at the parking lot; if it has a disproportionate number of BMWs, Audis, obvious rental cars, stay away. Look for the place that has some beat-up Fiats, Lancias, perhaps an old Renault or two. If the locals go there, it must be good and it must perform consistently, even in February. The authors of this book are undoubtedly well-meaning and they have written a perfectly decent guide. So have about 90 others, with about the same information.

Editorial Review:

From the publishers of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World

"A Tourist's Best Friend!"
—Chicago Sun-Times

"Indispensable"
—The New York Times

Five Great Features and Benefits offered ONLY by The Unofficial Guide:

• A complete planner to Florence, Rome, and the highlights of Tuscany, Umbria, Latium, and the Marches

• Honest advice that lets you feel safe and comfortable in the heart of Italy—whether you speak Italian or not

• Insider tips on finding the most charming hotels for the best price

• Hundreds of restaurants reviewed and ranked for quality and value

• A complete guide to the region's cultural and historic sights—with helpful hints for making the most of your time

Lonely Planet Tuscany & Umbria

Nicola Williams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Lonely Planet Tuscany & Umbria, 4th Edition, 2006 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

My partner and I used this guide for our trip to Tuscany (Toscana) in June 2006, and we found it very serviceable. The places we visited were Siena, Florence (Firenze), Assisi, Perugia, Orvieto, and Volterra, among others.

Lonely Planet's guide gave us all the options available for getting to and from each city and town in the region. Whether by train, car, bicycle, or foot, it provides enough information to help you get there and back without too much trouble. This is in contrast to the Let's Go guidebooks which provide more information about staying in the towns themselves than about how to get there. This guide helped us with taking the train from Rome (Roma), and renting a car in Siena and making daytrips to Assisi, Perugia, and Orvieto.

The information on hotels is sufficient but I'd recommend doing a little research online about places to stay BEFORE you leave. LP guides give you a sampling of hotels and inns and a little blurb about each, but don't expect too much information on them. The quoted price ranges can be a little off, but LP assumes one is travelling during the peak season (July-August).

The information on restaurants is okay, and LP provides a decent listing of places to eat in whatever town you may be. It was either hit or miss for us. A few of the places LP recommended turned out to be duds but a few were spot on. One of the hits was a little taverna in Assisi that served linguini with black truffle sauce--yum!

As far as sites and attractions go, don't expect a wealth of information. LP gives a brief history/description for all the major sites but a lot of minor ones are either only touched upon or passed over altogether. One would be better off using the Michelin Green Guides for more detailed information about specific sites and attractions, as those provide a plethora of names, dates, and events that make them more akin to history books than travel guides.

The maps in the book are really good; they are accurate and easy to read. For all the major cities and towns covered in the guide, LP plots out the locations of all the hotels, restaurants, and attractions they mention. In this regard they are exactly like Let's Go (and all other guides, I imagine).

In my opinion this Lonely Planet guide is not the definitive book on Tuscany, but when used with other guides it can be an invaluable resource for your trip to this wonderful region of Italy. Pack it with you when you go--and don't forget the sunscreen!

Editorial Review:

Discover Tuscany & Umbria

Find heaven on earth in the buone frescoes of Giotto, Cimabue, Pinturicchio and Lorenzetti

Trade those Manolos and museums for barns and bunnies in our special rundown of rural residences

Break bread with celebrity restaurateur Fabio Picchi at members club Teatro del Sale

Trek, sail or ride around shimmering Lake Trasimeno and enjoy that dolce far niente

In This Guide:

Language, cookery, wine-tasting and jewellery courses - you name it, our authors have checked it out

Book in and bed down at the best-value accommodation in the region

Don't just take our word for it; see what travelers are saying at lonelyplanet.com

Frommer's Tuscany & Umbria's Best-Loved Driving Tours (Best Loved Driving Tours)

British Automobile Association

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Everything You Need to See the Best of Tuscany & Umbria by Car!

Let Frommer's Take You To:

• Medieval walled cities, majestic alpine slopes, and lively festivals

• The Etruscan treasures and hidden hot springs of The Maremma

• David, the Birth of Venus, the Duomo and other stunning masterpieces in art-rich Florence

• The vineyards of the Chianti region and the quaint Western Hill Towns

• Northern Umbria, home to ancient churches and basilicas, valleys of olive groves, and brilliant frescoes

• And much, much more!

Inside You'll Find:

• 25 distinctive, easy-to-use itineraries—all fully illustrated with beautiful full-color photos

• Recommendations on the best hotels and restaurants along each route

• Exact directions, distances, and driving times for each route

• All the sights along the way—with highlights for history buffs, nature lovers, and families traveling with kids

• Scenic side trips, special moments, and recommended walks

• Detailed, accurate full-color route-planning maps—plus a helpful atlas section

Insight Guides, Umbria (Insight Guide Umbria)

Hofer Communications, Insight Guides

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good Book 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Told me what I needed to know for being in Paris for only 2 days.

Amazon editors, check these reviews! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Kelly Brown must have a weird sense of time and space if a guidebook to PERU can help her navigate PARIS.

Amazon editors -- please remove KB's review and this one, once you've noticed it.

Editorial Review:

Announcing a revolutionary new travel guide from Insight Guides, the pioneers of the illustrated guidebook. Packed with expanded editorial coverage, a bounty of practical information and fresh, exciting photography, graphics and mapping, the next generation of Insight Guides sets the new standard by which travel guides will be judged.

Michelin Toscana, Umbria, San Marino, Marche, Lazio, Abruzzo (Michelin Maps)

Michelin Travel Publications

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

This map is too big! 3 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

These Michelin individual maps are really too big to be of much use unless you have a navigator who can fold it up on their lap. Michelin sells spiral bound volumes. If they have one for where you are going it's the best. This map would be OK for planning for travel by car. Not much help for train travel.

Molto bene! Great travel map for long distances 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Bot this to plan a 3 wk. car trip to Tuscany, Umbria & Lazio & brought it along for using during the entire trip. Absolutely fantastic! Even when we missed a turn because a road sign was misplaced or missing, we could still figure out where we were and how to get to our final destination easily with this map. Michelin's maps always work superbly for us, and that's all we use whenever we're doing a car trip on our own for countries they map.

Editorial Review:

An annually updated road map of Central Italy, covering the main and secondary road networks across the region. Scale: 1/400,000 - 1cm=4km Legend/Key in four languages (Italian, French, English, German)

Umbria (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)

DK Publishing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Another Excellent DK guide 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Another excellent Eyewitness Travel Guide. I anticipate it will be very helpful on my vacation.

Editorial Review:

The region is broken down into Northern and Southern sections, and features such famous towns as Assisi and Orvieto, as well as the region's many wonderful and unspoiled national parks, its culture and history, plus all the usual detailed and practical information needed to visit Umbria.

The Rough Guide to Tuscany & Umbria 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

Rough Guides

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Personal Tour Guide 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

We just returned from Tuscany & Umbria and used a friend's Rough Guide to Tuscany & Umbria 5. It was indispensable! User-friendly and entertaining - plus great recommendations for restaurants, pizza, gelato, etc.

Editorial Review:

Explore every corner of this beautiful Italian region with the revised sixth edition of the Rough Guide to Tuscany & Umbria. Let the 24-page, full-colour section inspire you on where to go and what to see, from the monuments of Florence, Siena and Assisi to ancient Etruscan ruins. In addition, there are three, brand-new, 4-page inserts: ‘Diena Palio’, ‘Renaissance Art & Architecture’ and ‘Landscapes’. The guide highlights all the regions best hotels and restaurants, plus there are hundreds of listings of all the top bars, clubs, and shops, to suit every budget. To help you make the most of beautiful outdoors, there are plenty of practical tips on everything from attending the Spoleto Festival to walking in the Monti Sibillini. The guide comes complete with maps and plans for the whole area.

On the Road with Francis of Assisi: A Timeless Journey Through Umbria and Tuscany, and Beyond

Linda Bird Francke

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

On the Road with Francis of Assisi offers a unique and lively travelogue of parallel journeys: that of Francis of Assisi on his way to sainthood in the thirteenth century, and that of author Linda Bird Francke, who followed his path through the beauty of central and coastal Italy–and even on to Egypt.

Francke tells the compelling story of Saint Francis through the many places he visited. She and her husband, Harvey Loomis, used as their guidebooks medieval texts, including the first official biography of the saint, completed in 1229, just three years after he died. Theirs was not a spiritual journey but one based on admiration for a man whose legend continues to inspire and fascinate millions around the world.

From Assisi–a small Umbrian town that now draws two million visitors a year, making it second only to Rome as an Italian pilgrimage destination–Saint Francis crisscrossed Italy for twenty years. And so too does the author travel through the “green heart” of Italy to such hill towns and cities as Siena, Bologna, Venice, Gubbio, and Rome, and to the many mountaintop Franciscan sanctuaries from La Verna and Le Celle di Cortona in Tuscany to the Rieti Valley.

Along the way, Francke movingly depicts the many miracles Francis performed and draws us into the splendid beauty of the landscape that inspired the saint’s love for nature and regard for all living things. Unlike Francis, however, whose asceticism caused him to add ashes to his food to deaden its earthly pleasure, Francke and her husband indulge in the fabled Umbrian cuisine, from wild boar to the region’s famed black truffles, and the incomparable local wines.

On the Road with Francis of Assisi embraces the spirit and person of its legendary subject, and invites the reader to marvel at his spiritual intensity and follow in his footsteps through the timeless beauty of Italy.


From the Hardcover edition.