Best-Kept Secrets of Italy

Very pleased with this book. Great value and arrived the following day. Unlike some books on the subject, photos of places were clearly titled.

Very informative a perfect companion to travel in Italy

A Christmas gift for the couple who have everything. They really loved it and have already planned two touring vacations based on the content, the first on just a few weeks away.

I am/was a frequent visitor to Italy so thoroughly enjoyed this armchair trip round the country to remind me of how beautiful it is. (For clarity, the version I bought is by Gordon Kerr – the same book, but listed as being by Tamsin Pickeral, also seems to be listed on Amazon at the moment.) On the plus side, for what it is, it’s excellent value for money at £15.00. Divided into six sections covering every region of Italy (North West, North East, Central, Rome, Southern Italy and Islands), each page has one or more photos with a short descriptive paragraph. On the negative side, the photos are often quite small and they are all stock photos from a variety of photo libraries – Alamy, Getty Images, Shutterstock, etc - so the quality of detail and lighting varies. Some of them seem to be suffering from saturation where the colour is too bright/garish and so they look slightly unnatural. The variability is most noticeable on the first page of every section where there are thumbnail prints of all the photos in that section together on one page. I don’t think this is unreasonable given the price point, but this might not be what you are expecting if you want something a bit more glossy or heavyweight. It could also do with a map showing the places mentioned – I found myself having to constantly Google this or other place name while reading to find out where was being described. The blurb on the inside cover says ’Exploring sights both familiar and little-known…’ so the title ‘Best-Kept Secrets’ is perhaps not wholly accurate either. For example, the section on Florence (in the Central Italy section) features the Duomo, Galleria degli Uffizi and Ponte Vecchio. Overall though, despite my quibbles, I enjoyed this book.

Beautiful book. Bought as a present for someone who loves travelling around Italy.

This was a Christmas present for a work colleague- he adored it!

This is a lovely coffee table book, and shows how beautiful Italy is

A beautiful book, stunning pictures and a great buy, I'm delighted. Excellent thank you.

I have never been to Italy. If you haven't but want to see the true beauty of this country, BUY THIS BOOK! This is one of the most beautiful picture books I have ever seen! Not only is this an amazing coffee-table book, but it is also very educational as there are very interesting writings with the photographs describing the history of that region, as well as the general history of Italy, I LOVE THIS BOOK!.

Copertina rigida, arrivato senza difetti. La carta è di qualità fotografica, le immagini e le didascalie sono bellissime. Ho fatto un regalo ed è stato molto apprezzato.

Utile , con belle foto

A lovely book on so many places unknown to the common explorer as myself !! Just captivating !

The book is so illustrative of the beauty and wonder of Italy. Was disappointed that it was just thrown into a padded envelope for shipping that caused a tear in the dust jacket.