A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy: Museums, Monuments, and Battlegrounds

I was truly expecting so much more, based upon the rating and other reviews. First off, when you purchase this book get a reference, with a map, to the battles of Italy. Try “The Day of Battle,” as a reference and more importantly, a great account of what happened in Italy. This version does include sites found in Sicily if that is what you have an interest in. So with no maps and a limited review of what you might be seeking/looking for, I have a hard time giving this guide more than three stars. My problem, I am use to reading travel guides related to the Civil War, which are so much more informative and useful. I will use this book but will also use other sources to help me to determine where I will go and visit, considering so many gave all for their beliefs.

I used the book on a recent trip to southern Italy. It was helpful although the directions need to be supplemented by a very good map. Some of the German cemeteries are quite hard to find but worth it once you do stumble across them. Anzio is a built up city on the coast, so you need a history of the battle to complement this book. Good museum in Anzio.The Rome section was good and took you off the beaten tourist path quite a bit. Mussolini"s home was still there, now an art museum but does have a section with photos of his days living there. The old train station is shabby, but you get an idea of what it must have been like in the 1930's. The prison is open as a museum also--several floors of exhibits.So the book is fine, you need to know your history and do some research before you go of course.

April 2010I am planning a trip to Italy this summer and am really excited about using this book. My father fought in Italy during WWII, and the author offers some great insight and history on all the sites I want to visit. I like the way she follows the route the Allies took in Italy, from the south to north, and that two chapters are devoted to all the sites within Rome itself. The book gives clear directions, hours and admission fees to what must be every battlefield, monument and military cemetery on the peninsula. Great pictures and maps, and a concise list of recommended hotels for the big cities and small towns.September 2010I'm back from Italy now and can report that this guidebook was indeed very useful. I spent most of my time in Rome, and one of the most interesting places I visited was the Jewish Museum and Synagogue---something I doubt I would have seen without the recommendation from this book. I also went to some sites in Southern Italy, mainly at Monte Cassino. I appreciated the book's advice on how much time to allow for getting to the more remote places, and what to expect when I got there. All in all, the book was a real asset--easy to use, light to carry.

The war in Italy took a back seat to the action in Normandy while it was going on and it continues to take a back seat. But the conflict here was brutal and it was important to the war's outcome. This is a very useful guidebook of the WWII sites and museums in Italy. It highlights the better-known sites such as Anzio and Monte Cassino as well as some far-less-well-known locations. Besides very good directions, it gives a reader a good introductory overview of the campaign and the events that happened at each location.Obviously, most visitors to places like Normandy are likely to spend at least some time seeing WWII sites, while a much smaller percentage of visitors to Italy are retracing WWII campaigns. But for anyone who is interested in touring this historically important area, this book would be a valuable resource.

My husband and I have visited some / most of the sites in the book on a tour. We are now going back on a driving trip and wanted to visit favorites (i.e. Monte Casino - the tour did not allow enough time as there are so many other sites nearby which needed to be seen that day). This book is straightforward, well-organized and should be useful when cross-referenced with our itinerary.

This book will be useful for anyone with an interest in the Italian Campaign in WW II. It provides a comprehensive look at many points of interest. My uncle fought in the Fifth Army from Salerno to Milan. This book is a great resource for a trip to Italy that I've had in mind for a long time.

Great book. Had a lot of useful information in it. Well researched. Was hard to use the directions provided by the author though. We took it with us to Italy and some of the sites are hard to find with the directions provided in the book. A great starting point for anyone planning a trip to Italy to find interesting sites along their route. Discovered that Italy didn't preserve much from that era, compared to France, Germany and so on.

Good primer for the major war memorials/monuments in Italy. I was hoping for more detail on some of the lesser well known, hard to find things (i.e. 3ID monument at Nettuno and "The Caves" at Anzio) that only someone with some detailed knowledge would even know existed. In the preface the author admits this upfront, promising future volumes delving into more details.

I recently visited Italy to go to the battlefields of Anzio and Monte Cassino. As my usual UK-based publishers of battlefield guides didn't seem to cover Italy, I found this on Amazon and for £7 thought it "worth a punt". It didn't disappoint and proved extremely helpful over the past week, giving addresses for most of the primary site we wanted to visit. That said I have only given it 3 stars as being published in 2016 some of the data is now out-of-date or misleading. For instance the Museum that is meant to be in Fort Sangallo in Nettuno seems to have totally disappeared and that in Cassino which is stated to open daily now only seems to open on Sundays . I suspect the Pandemic hit some of the sites hard and they are still trying to recover, so best to check websites and don't just rely on this book.

I gave the highest rating to this book because my Dad, Sergeant Leonard "Curly" Grew, is the soldier on the left on the cover of the book. I bought 2 copies of this book, one for my brother and one for myself. My Dad died in 1990 so having this photograph of my Dad means the world to me. Those 3 soldiers on the cover are members of the First Special Service Force (FSSF), also known as the "Devil's Brigade". No one asked us permission to use this photo but all I care about is I got to see my Dad again. I have heard that this guide to the Italian campaign battles is an excellent guide.

The subject matter of the book is great but the author should have included the Huskey Operation. Many G.I.(Americans), Tommies(British), D-Day Dogers(Canadians), Australian, Indians, Polish and many more died to liberate this Italian island. The success of this operation open the door to the following ones in the Italian Campaign.It was nice that the author aknowledge that other nation beside the Americans and British participated in the Italian Campaign.The Author should of elaborated more on the importance of the Huskey Operation. Once in the Italian Campaign, there should of been more information about the conflict itself.

very informative book very useful book when I go to Italy where my late father fought at Anzio and other places

This is a potentially very useful addition to the libray of those with an interest in tracking WW2 in Italy and visiting the sites. Not a thick book so don't measure its value by number of pages