No comments about Town and Country in Locorotondo (Cultural Studies in Cultural Anthropology).

No comments about The Mystery of the Tuscan Hills: A Travel Guide in Search of the Ancient Etruscans.

No comments about The Heritage Guide Rome: The Eternal City and the Vatican, Their Churches, Museums, Monuments and Archeological Sites (Heritage Guides).

No comments about Wallpaper City Guides Fashion Boxed Set ("Wallpaper*" City Guides).

No comments about Words are Stones: Impressions of Sicily (Hesperus Modern Voices).

1 comments about The Silk Road: Art and History.

1. Jonathan Tucker offers us not only a history and an art and architecture book, he provides us a feeling for the merchants and scholars who traveled east and west across the expanse of Asia for profit, for knowledge, and for adventure. The hundreds of fine colored photographs, the many interspersed maps, and quotations from poetry and contemporary travelers aid our armchair journeys across time and cultures. Arranged much like a guidebook, the author starts in Xian, China, and takes us westward along the various land routes of the Silk Road, with southern spurs to Afghanistan and India as well as northern routes to the Aral and Caspian areas. Although the various wars of empire over the past 2,000 years tend to merge and blur by the time the reader approaches the end, we do manage to appreciate the influences of art, technology, and design of one people upon another. We see how empire-building and its associates bloodshed and city destruction had a strong economic basis, and the encouragement of trade and protection of caravans from brigands were key responsibilities of kings and khans.
   
   The Art Media Resources edition I own has a number of typographical errors, chiefly hard hyphens and spaces that were not removed in digital production. The style is dry and direct but easy to follow.
   
   Readers of all the other historical books on the Silk Road that focus on music, religion, and military matters, as well as modern tourists seeking the unusual, will find this large book a perfectly worthy supplement. And if you have no such interest in Silk Road studies but are curious, then by all means begin here.

No comments about Vienna: Imperial City (A History and Photo Journey, New Edition).

5 comments about Rome (Pallas Guides).

1. Brilliant! I've been to Rome five times with this book... although it was concise enough to give me an excellent overview even by the first time.



2. Did you ever run across a guidebook that, at the same time, 1) gives you a brilliantly clever and comprehensive choice of information about the sites and 2) allows you to get to each site in the easiest, quickest way?
   
   I didn't, until I found "Rome" by Mauro Lucentini. That double record is especially remarkable in a city like Rome, where the various sights may have lifespans of up to 2,800 years requiring equally monumental explanations, and/or be concealed into corners of a labyrinthine ancient habitat, where you can easily lose your way. With 700-plus pages, Lucentini's book may be a bit heavy to carry, but it is an incredible pleasure to read, and you will be thankful for each page, so fascinating is every bit of the information provided - no other Roman guide comes even close to the amount of historic or artistic background supplied - and for the fact that it will lead you in front of every item by the hand.
   
   Also, the book is structured in such a way that, if you care doing it, you are able to read a good half of it and digest quite a lot of information even before you leave for your destination, This is a quality no other guidebook I know possesses, at least not to such an extent.



3. Terrific Book. Detailed descriptions of this glorious city. Every traveler to Rome should use it as reference.



4. This book is a wonderful foray into the many aspects and history of Rome, and can be enjoyed sitting in New York, as well as walking in Rome. I've taken many of the walks, and the book is a chatty, fun, and erudite companion, pointing out all of the (almost) hidden traces of centuries past. A must for travelers in Italy (or just in your armchair)!



5. I have a shelf full of guides to Rome but when I bought this last year I threw away the rest of the shelf. It is simply fantastic. I have been a book reviewer for thirty years and never thought I would 'go overboard' about a book but this is everything I wanted. Personal, informed, entertaining, reliable, surprising, instructive, accessible, logical, practical.......I run out of words. It's great to read before during and after you visit Rome - only drawback is it's too bulky to carry around with you but take notes! Use it as your bible. Rome (Pallas Guides)

No comments about The Sunny Side of the Alps: Year-Round Delights in South Tyrol and the Dolomites.

No comments about The Uffizi Guide (English) (Firenze MVSEI).