Rating: 
Summary: If food is your passion...
Review: ..then this is your book for Italy. It was a lifesaver. Every place recommended and tried was interesting and tasty. We sampled restaurants and enotecas in Milan and Venice. If in Milan, you must check out Gastronomia Peck - it makes Balducci's look like a farmer's market!
Rating: 
Summary: invaluable, infuriating
Review: I have extremely mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, during a recent trip to Tuscany I found it invaluable. The recommendations are spot on, the descriptions are accurate, and the advice is excellent. If Willinger describes a restaurant as a good, traditional trattoria, that's what it is; if it's a bakery with a particular specialty, that specialty is worth a taste. She steered us to one of the best restaurant meals I've ever eaten (at Viccolo del Contento, in Castelfranco di Sopra). We never would have known about it without her. (There was one recommendation we disagreed with: Cibreo, in Florence. But practically every guidebook recommends it highly, so either we had an atypical experience there or it's gone downhill.)On the other hand, the book is so badly organized that trying to use it is extraordinarily frustrating. The section on Florence, for example, is a hodgepodge -- restaurants, bakeries, shops, etc. *seem* to be arranged by category (except when they aren't), and alphabetically within each category (except when they aren't). Since there's no map of the city, and only vague mentions of where things are, to find places you have to match the address to a map from some other source. (I finally got out my guidebook map and went through the entire Florence section, marking the entries of places that were near where we were staying.) The book also contains frustrating lapses. There are generally no directions or only minimal information on where things are. The "Pitti Gola e Cantina" in Florence is wrongly named (as "Pitti Libri e Gola") and is listed simply as being in the Piazza Pitti -- no street address. We would have had a hard time finding it if we hadn't had another guidebook that gave the correct name and address. And in small towns, you generally have to ask for directions from the locals, otherwise you'll never find where you're going. (That's what we had to do for Viccolo del Contento.) Note the subtitle: this book only covers Northern Italy. My advice: if you're going to Northern Italy, buy this book, but make sure that you look through it carefully before you go so that you know more or less what to look for when you get there. Otherwise, you'll be constantly frustrated.
Rating:
Summary: An Indispensible Guide to Northern Italian Eateries
Review: I made 3 trips to Italy last year and it looks like I might be repeating my stunt this year. This book has been my faithful companion because I care very much about where I eat and what I drink. It is a great book and I stongly recommend it. A few gotchas: 1) Lots of other tourists now use this too. In big cities, you'll probably find lots of tourists (typically American) at the restaurants listed. Nothing wrong but FYI. 2) Quite a number of typos. The latest one I found is on pg 46 for the single "inn" listed for Alba. Their fax number should end with 112 and not 122. I pity the guy at 122 who must be so tied of being called. 3) A little out of date. This book was published some time back so it really doesn't talk about some new and very hot restaurants whether in a place like Florence or a place like San Donato in Chianti. 4) Does not cover the South (Amalfi, etc). Warning warning. I will try Fred Plotkin's book on my next trip to the south.
Rating:
Summary: Great book but here are some gotchas
Review: I made 3 trips to Italy last year and it looks like I might be repeating my stunt this year. This book has been my faithful companion because I care very much about where I eat and what I drink. It is a great book and I stongly recommend it. A few gotchas: 1) Lots of other tourists now use this too. In big cities, you'll probably find lots of tourists (typically American) at the restaurants listed. Nothing wrong but FYI. 2) Quite a number of typos. The latest one I found is on pg 46 for the single "inn" listed for Alba. Their fax number should end with 112 and not 122. I pity the guy at 122 who must be so tied of being called. 3) A little out of date. This book was published some time back so it really doesn't talk about some new and very hot restaurants whether in a place like Florence or a place like San Donato in Chianti. 4) Does not cover the South (Amalfi, etc). Warning warning. I will try Fred Plotkin's book on my next trip to the south.
Rating: 
Summary: This book can be your guide to great culinary delights
Review: I recommend this book. It is the best guide to restaurants in Italy and contains many absolute gems that otherwise one could find only with the help of discriminating local friends. But it is not a failsafe guide, one does have to read a bit between the lines to avoid loosers that, regretfully, got included. For instance, in Milano, neither Peck nor Don Lisander belong on any recommended list. They are high class tourist traps with undistinguished food and mediocre service at outrageous prices. You could guess that reading Willinger's comments but you need a very fine antenna.
Rating:
Summary: An Indispensible Guide to Northern Italian Eateries
Review: I've made something like ten pleasure trips to Italy in the past decade, and for me, this is easily the best dining resource IN PRINT. In this Internet age, there are additional ways to garner some information about Eating in Italy, but it you aren't too interested in the "new, hot, trendy" etc., this is definitely money well spent.
There are other books I draw upon, including Sandra Gustafson's "Cheap Eats In Italy," Florence Fabricant's "Trattorias of Rome, Florence, and Venice," and the guides from the Time Out series. But kilo for kilo, this is the one I use most frequently, especially if you wander away from Rome-Florence-Venice.
Many of her recommendations also pop up (as citations) in some of the better travelogues--- for instance her writing is cited in books such as "The Collected Traveler-- Central Italy" collected by Barrie Kerper and the recently issued "Piazzas and Pizzas-- the Adventures of the Clean Plate Club in Italy."
Worth every penny, Euro, or late, lamented Lire that you spend.
Rating:
Summary: Best of its kind
Review: If you have shelled out good money for "Gastronomic Guides" or "Restaurant Guides" to Italy, and have been disappointed, one-click this one.A reliable,entertaining and stimulating book about the pleasures of food in Italy. You know you are in good hands when the author says it's "worth a detour" to go to an outdoor stand in Greve for a porchetta sandwich. Willinger never misleads you, and never patronizes you. Buy it!
Rating:
Summary: If food is your passion...
Review: This is a really fun book! It provides more indepth information than the usual guide book. Not only tells you about the local food and wine selection, but also information about the local crafts, events, and specialty items. Recommends local stores for cookware, best markets, linen & houseware shops. Provides Menu specialty selections for each province, tells hours/days of operation for local markets. Provides words and phrases to use when ordering in markets and restaurants. Gives some hotel information and realistic cost ratings on restaurants, cafes, trattorias, etc. Excellent book!
Rating:
Summary: FUN book -Much more than just food!!
Review: This is a really fun book! It provides more indepth information than the usual guide book. Not only tells you about the local food and wine selection, but also information about the local crafts, events, and specialty items. Recommends local stores for cookware, best markets, linen & houseware shops. Provides Menu specialty selections for each province, tells hours/days of operation for local markets. Provides words and phrases to use when ordering in markets and restaurants. Gives some hotel information and realistic cost ratings on restaurants, cafes, trattorias, etc. Excellent book!
Rating:
Summary: Best Food and Wine Book I've Ever Found!
Review: This is the best and most consistent travel book I have ever found. We are going to France this summer and I can't bear planning the trip without F. Willinger's help. I am in the wine business and my other half is a chef, we are very hard to please when it comes to eating and drinking. In three weeks, we did not find one restaurant recommendation that was not right on the money and superb. There were even fantastic and unusual regional wine suggestions. Not only was the food and wine information terrific, but the descriptions of the owners and the restaurants' atmospheres were perfect. I give this book to all my friends who are planning a trip to Northern Italy. I only wish that F. Willinger would write about other countries and regions. I spent hours enjoying the book before we left. Never has planning a trip been so much fun. Don't go to Northern Italy with it!
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