Lonely Planet: Italy product reviews

Ah Rome. Pizzas. Olive Oil, Balsamic Viniger. Oh yeah, the sights too - the coloseum, The Vatican, Castle St Angelo and so much more.

Well, that is what we were thinking about when we decided, very late in the day, when we decided to go to Rome. The Tickets were books four days prior to travel and me, being me, left everything to chance - I did have a copy of the Lonely Planet with me!
Whilst on the plane trip over to Rome from England, it was then I decided to look for accomodation and plan where to go from there.

We Landed, and with the Lonely Planet's advice of cheap hotels and bed & Breakfasts, we found a counter at the airport who not only booked a hotel for us, but suggested a bus tour too.
We found ourselves stationed at La Spagna (and thanks to the tourist maps in the Lonely Planet Guide we found where we were staying quickly. In fact, the rest of the trip passed very smoothly.

The Lonely Planet is written by people who know the area, not just tourists. The advice given is invaluable for the visitor, I would say it made our trip far more productive because of the advice and hints contained therein. We saw far more of Rome as one might expect in almost 3 days.
The only 'blips' we had on our trip were ones that could never have been forseen by the Lonely Planet Guide (The Metro closing early that month for essential maintenence work) or were as a result of us not reading the guide.

Any future trip abroad will be accompanied by a Lonely Planet Guide, they have books that cover almost every (if not all) countries, and many cities alone. Well work every cent of the purchase price.
Just do not do as we did and read it on the plane on the way to Rome - plan your trip in advance, and Lonely Planet will help you get the utmost from your trip.