The Rough Guide to Italy

Rough Guides, 2011. — 1075 p.It’s the world’s most celebrated tourist destination, and rightly so. Italy really does have it all: one of the most diverse and beautiful landscapes in Europe; the world’s greatest hoard of art treasures (on display in fittingly spectacular cities and buildings); a climate that is on the whole benign and mild; and, most important of all for many, a delicious and authentic national cuisine. Yet Italy is not perfect. Corruption still reaches to the highest levels, historic cities have been marred by development, and beyond the showpiece sights the country’s infrastructure is visibly straining. But the fact is that many of the clichés of an idyllic Italy still hold true – and once you’ve visited, you might never want to travel anywhere else.