No comments about Rome (Art in Focus Series).

1 comments about Berlitz Rome: City Guide Map (Z-Map).

1. I just got home from Rome, and this map went everywhere with me. I loved it. It just covers old Rome, but as a tourist map it was perfect.

No comments about Muses at Work: Art, Crafts, and Professions in Ancient Greece and Rome.

No comments about Rome Bus and Metro Map.

No comments about Rome and Vatican: New Coloured Guide Book.

5 comments about Lonely Planet Rome.

1. This is one of the worst travel guides that I have ever used. It is very poorly organized...I found it confusing to use. It contains a lot of information if read cover to cover but, for example, when used at a site such as the Vatican, it was useless as a guide. When I needed it to help me find a very popular spot in Vatican City, it was of no help. I only had a few days in Rome and I wanted information on which sites were "must sees". it was of no help here, either. Save your money and get a better guide like the Insight guide or Let's go.



2. I have just come home after a week in Rome. Travelled there with a backpack filled with travel books and novels about Rome. I do travel alot, and usually the Lonely Planet guides have been very helpful. But this one was not. At least not helpful to take with me when I walked around. The book has alot of information, but it is hard to find the information when you need it, the text is usually quite boring, the maps are of very little use, and the book all in all looks dull.
   There is one exeption though, the boxed texts can sometimes be very useful and even written with some charm. The first day I was in Rome LP's Rome followed me in my backpack, but in the evening I took it out - it was of no use when I wandered around, and I had several books so much more interesting and helpful.

   I really hope the next edition of the book will be better, knowing other LP books I will give it another chance.

   Britt Arnhild Lindland




3. This book has major flaws as a guidebook. It is relatively rich in informaiton and interesting as a read if you want to know about Rome and useful if it is used as a referrence alongside other guidebook (which is what we did in the end), but if you want to walk around the city with this book in hand, you can hardly find what you want to see and figure out where you are and what it is in front of you.

   Because in places like Rome you have all sorts of historic things lying about all over, you need one, a useful guide how you can go about without missing "must sees" (model course with good map and good instructions), two, a clue/instruction how to recognise something important and not to go past it without realising what it is - many ruins and churches look similar if you don't know them (again good map that can be easily referred back to entries of the text), and three, you want to know what it is when you came across something interesting while roaming around the city. This book was no help in any case. Imagine - if you come across something interesting which has no tags saying what it is, which is often the case in Rome, especially where there are so many ruins in proximity, you have to determine either from your location (good map is needed) or marker (what is near-by). Neither of them is provided in the guidebook. Everytime we came across a church or ruins that looked interesting (some of them really famous), we had to spend quite a long time trying to figure out where we were and what it was, sometimes in vain (maps unclear and complicated, the text just listed items with no indication where are they, how to find them etc.) Later we realised that we had missed out some of the must-sees even though we visited places nearby because there are no clue on what we can see if we are in a particular place and the maps were quite useless. Also, in some occasions we actually saw a wrong thing believing it was what we wanted to see, to be later surprised to come across the real thing (again poor map and lack of a marker and proper guide) or just passed across something without realising what it was.

   We also found some of the information on restaurants were outdated. Once we entered this highly recommended restaurant, which was flooded with tourists and food was really bad (I had very very dry, hard steak - I could not believe it, as although I am not a big meat eater, I find meat dishes in Italy usually wonderful). The service was pretty bad too (sort of "be greatful we are feeding you" attitude). When we asked for a bill the server (I think he was owner as well) dared to say that "Service cahrge is not included", demanding for tips. We left without paying any tip, greatly regretting we missed one precious meal in Rome and relearning a great lesson - if there are a lot of tourists and no locals, just walk away.

   Having said this, with more thoughts into how to make things more clear, I think it can be turned into a good guidebook. Improved quality of the maps (and probably more maps to highlight important areas), which can be easily referred back to the text and vice versa, and reworking structure of the text and giving more instructions/markers where and how to find monuments will be absolutely necessary. But if you're looking for a propper guidebook to take you through Rome, you better wait for a revised edition or get something else.




4. For some reason, Lonely Planet just cannot win with any Italian destination. Tuscany, Venice, and now Rome - all just plain bad. The book is more or less unusable: the good photo of the cover is probably the best thing of the guide. The rest is worthless waste of paper: "deep thoughts" and irrelevant ticket and accommodation advice (should be called "How To Pay More For Everything"), recycled and reused from all other LP guides, a fair bit of pinko rhetoric coupled with tired, uninspired and amateurish writing about the very things that make Rome enchanting. I do not know any other guide which would be just so hopelessly incompetent about sightseeing information as Lonely Planet. This is a triumph of cheap "been-here-done-that" backpacker, the swan song of the great unwashed.

   Other guides are like well-informed friends that tell you about all the breathtaking sights of the most beautiful cities in the world. This one would be just a grumpy old malodorous fella who volunteers to spend his time with you: you've heard all his stories and he is a prejudiced and annoying smelly bore, but he'll spend time with you as long as you keep buying him drinks.




5. They left out a lot of history and a lot of landmarks in favor of "gee whiz" and cheap, nasty eateries. The hotel reviews were worthless as well. I would not recommend this as a travel book unless you are going the el-cheapo backpacker route. Even then, I'd say look for something else: perhaps the "Let's Go" for Rome would have been better. My main criticism of Lonely Planet is that it concentrates on the low-cost and the low-brow. This one failed at proper low-cost education, and didn't provide anything to make up for it. The maps were crummy as well.
   
   I mean, it's Rome. Granted, Rome is huge and wonderful, but I could have written a better book based on a few week visit.

No comments about Insight Guide Shopping in Rome (Insight Guides (Shopping Guides)).

No comments about Ancient Rome Timechart.

No comments about AAA Italy, Austria & Switzerland: Including Bern, Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome, Vienna, Zurich: Plus Italy, Austria & Switzerland Driving Distance Chart, Malta Island Inset Map, Sardinia Island Inset Map: International Series 2008 (03788651853, 1206309170707).

1 comments about I Wouldn't Leave Rome to Go to Heaven.

1. If you've ever loved a city, you'd know how easy it is to love Rome. And Joie Davidow describes Rome in a modern, highly lived-in way. If you've ever sat in a caffe' and learned to linger and wondered about the man with the big hat, the woman with the long scarf, the waiter with the look, this book brings all of them to life within the sinuous streets of the Trastevere of today -- where one is as likely to hear Moroccan accented Italian, Albanian and English mixed with Italian or Spanish, even romanesco if you're lucky! The personaggi 's lives --highly intelligent people they are, people who know much about themselves - rise out of those steamed cappuccini, take form and shape and lead us through the city that is heaven to Joie, and thanks to her, to me as well. Grazie Joie!