Whatever you plan to do when visiting Florence, a “must have” is a pocket Florence travel guide. Florence travel guides are the best-seller books on Florence Italy. The travel guide is a book that accompanies many travelers during their trips to tourist sites, art, museums, galleries, archaeological sites and any sites that have a historical, artistic and environmental interest. Initially, travel guides were inventories of the historical-artistic heritage of the major cities, but later they began to include information about the main services, the economy and the historical development. Today we have the possibility to choose the travel guide among many specialized guides, up to date and complete. Every traveler can opt for the travel guide which is more suitable for his needs, although it is advisable to always have the most information possible from various sources. In Italy the three largest publishers of guides are the Lonely Planet, the Italian Touring Club and the Mondadori, followed by Deagostini and Michelin.
The Lonely Planet guides have a large amount of maps updated consistently with the help of travelers and contain practical information and transport. Another giant of the travel guides is the Italian Touring Club. It has three types of travel guides: the classic 23 red guides of the Italian regions and cities, the five quick guides on groups of Italian regions and sixteen guides of Europe. Such guides have been written by art experts and scholars, they are real encyclopedias that describe the places in detail. Unfortunately, they are not available in English. The Michelin guides are also constantly updated and aim much on hotels and quality restaurants.
What are the best Florence travel guides?
It depends on your needs. For who just wants to know the attractions and the services, Florence travel guides by Lonely Planet are the best. If you have a passion for art and history, you can choose the guides by Rick Steves. For young people who want to explore Florence and Italy by train, maybe the best is the specialized book by Jessica Spiegel. Don’t forget that if you want to travel with as less weight as possible, you can opt for Italy travel guides, less specialized, or you can buy an ebook guide, to read on your smartphone and tablet, even though the physical book is always my favorite.
Make your choice, here are my picks on Florence travel guides that you can buy on Amazon.
General Florence travel guides
Specialized Florence guides
Italy travel guides
Kindle travel guides
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