1 comments about Rome (City Guide).

1. This guide is, sadly to say, disappointing considering it is a Lonely Planet publication. In planning my next trip to Rome, I thought that this might be a great book to work from, but I found it to be poorly organized and overcrowded. The authors of this book crammed way too much information into this book that it borders on unusable. There are also very few photos and what photos are provided are not very helpful.
   
   Other Lonely Planet Guides to Rome would be a better choice than this. National Geographic Traveler Rome Guide is more insightful and will orientate the reader much better than this book will.
   
   It does come with a decent map that can be torn out, but it's paper. My only concern with that is being caught out in the rain. The map doesn't seem durable, and I wonder if it would even survive the trip. So if you're in the market for a guidebook to Rome, check out Lonely Planet's other options (besides this book), Nat'l Geographic Travelers Rome Guide, or Rome for Dummies.

5 comments about Rome from the Ground Up (From the Ground Up).

1. Rome from the Ground Up will entertain and enlighten both frequent visitors to Rome and those who have yet to see the city, both the determined walker of itineraries and the armchair traveler. Those intending to use the book as a guide should turn first to the last chapter, "Information," where McGregor describes the itinerary traced in each of the book's historical chapters and provides both the briefest and most practical guide I have seen to useful information for visitors to Rome. (Harvard University Press has made this entire chapter, as well as current links to the websites recommended there by McGregor, available on its website, www.hup.harvard.edu.) The illustrations are colorful and have been chosen to complement the text; the historical maps on the endpapers show both the entire plan of the classical city and the most important regions of the post-classical city (the Vatican, Trastevere, and the Campo Marzio). It is the combination of elegant prose with sharp observation, however, which makes McGregor an ideal cicerone from geologic time and the Tiber's carving out of Rome's canyons through the most recent Jubilee and the very mixed signs for Rome's future.



2. I thought I knew Rome well after living there for several months studying its' architecture, art, and urban structure, but I was constantly delighted by this book's comprehensive scope and illuminative details. McGregor's method of looking at each era of the city through a region's buildings, urban fabric, and artistic treasures is a great way of organizing what can otherwise be an impossible avalanche of information. This method may not be for everyone - if want to pick up a book to find out who built a particular part of the Lateran under what pope, buy the Blue Guide. If you want to know why something was built and how that "why" has affected the physical structure of the city over millennia, this is the book for you. The photographs are magnificent and correlate well with the text, and as for the lack of maps, IMHO you're better off buying a pocket map for a couple of Euro that shows the entire area at a decent scale in order to get a handle on the whole thing, rather than a wee page-sized map that doesn't do the subject justice let alone help you find your way around.



3. Writer trying to find a public
   When I bought Rome from the ground up I had no idea what to expect, thinking it was perhaps something along the line of Krautheimers Profile of a city (which by the way is mentioned in the bibliograpy of the book), showing the many layers of which Rome exists and the city's long and complicated history. Just to illustrate what I mean: if you are standing in the Forum and looking at the eight surviving columns of the temple of Saturn, it would be just as easy to write ten pages about what you are seeing, as ten pages about what you are not seeing. Doing both would be quite a job. Krautheimer describes the period from 312 till 1308, skipping republic and large part of imperial Rome, and has, in my first edition, 360 very large, double columned and small lettered pages.
   But Rome from the ground up is not that sort of book. Thank God, some readers will say. You' ll find that out just by taking it in your hands. The book has 320 small pages with lots of margin, small pictures, and no maps. It is organised in 8 chronological chapters, beginning with Tiber Island and Forum Boarium, than the Forum, next the imperial part of the city and so on, ending in the 19th century really. The idea of the structure is that in this way you get an chronological overview of the city, of which different parts were indeed built in different and succeeding periods. Every chapter could be a walk, or part of it. A small problem is that you would, in each part of the city, be able to point out things which do'nt fit in, and that now and then you would have to cover quite some distance to find everything that does. In his chapter on the Baroque Mc Gregor passes from the Via del Quirinale, by way of the Palazzo Barberini to the Villa Borghese. I admit that there is a lot of Baroque to be seen, but I sincerely hope he took a bus to do so (number 10, if I am not mistaken). Mc Gregor knows Rome a lot better than I do, I presume, while behind the things he writes looms a lot more knowledge which he doesn't use. And of course, it always is a pleasure to read someone who obviously loves Rome very much. And yes, he writes well, and yes, it must have been fun to write the book too. Yet, Rome from the ground up is really nothing more than a travelguide, without the facilities that normally accompany such a book. I find the title a bit of a gimmick and also the only pretentious part of the book. What is meant, is that a chronological presentation of Rome is from the ground up.
   I guess the problem with Rome from the ground up is who its reader is supposed to be. Although the author himself suggest that while "the book stands on its own as a portrait of the city, its format and organisation also makes Rome from the ground up a useful guide to travelers", I don 't think I agree, on both points that is. As a guide it is not of much use, and you would be better off buying a Blue Guide (still the best). As a book to read at home it is only of use if you know Rome well. But then, if you know Rome well, this is no longer the sort of book you read. The long descriptions of streets, palazzi, museums etc. which you don't see, can be very fatiguing. As a travel guide it doesn't work. The author seems to have guessed the problems readers could have with his book. "Maps can be had free everywhere in Rome", he says, "and updating guides all the time has become useless in these modern internet-times." I find that rather silly. When you are walking through Rome, internet is not of much use. Having a map and a guide at the same time is in practice laborious. On the other hand I agree that you will always need a good map. But it is nice if text and maps are integrated in a sensible way, as long as you are walking, especially since Rome is not New York. I usually take several guides with me. At the same time Rome from the ground up, although well written, is also somewhat superficial, even while it has some nice personal touches. But if you for instance would really visit the musea which are described in the book, the texts there wouldn't be of much use. You might even have problems finding the entrance of the place you try to visit, or not find it at all. Ostia isn't there, the catacombs aren't, and 20th century EUR, the part of the city started under Mussolini, and finished after the second world war, gets no treatment, which I find a pity. And it wouldn't be fair to complain about that to the author. A guide doesn't have to deliver an ongoing story and can structure its text in an easier way. And still the Blue Guide needs more than 600 pages. In short, while using Rome from the ground up as a guide would not be comfortable, reading it at home is not much use too. Bit of a waste really.



4. I felt this was something of a mixed bag. Parts of it were illuminating and fresh (the geological overview; the argument that Rome is not a palimpsest of overlaid cities but a mosaic of successive cities lying mostly side-by-side), other parts less so (the ho-hum chapter on the Roman Forum).
   
   There are, however, some major historical howlers. Two will suffice: McGregor states that the senate was staffed by patricians and was all-powerful, when in fact patricians were a minority in the senate and it had no legal power whatsoever. It was certainly influential, but it was hardly all-powerful. Elsewhere, McGregor states that Vespasian (69-79) succeeded Titus (79-81), when in fact it was the opposite, as the dates in brackets make clear. Silly errors in fact like this undermine my trust in those parts of the book covering areas I am less familiar with.
   
   All in all, this book is worth having, but not a patch on Aicher's *Rome Alive* or Claridge's *Rome; An Archaeological Guide* for the curious traveller.



5. This book will not be for everyone, but it was for me. I walked (and ran) all over Rome for a week a few months ago with the aid of a useful, but necessarily terse, guidebook. So I know the city superficially, but not very well. McGregor's treatise filled many gaps for me nicely. I wanted to know more about the architecture and history of Rome, and this book did the job. McGregor is strong on his architecture and passable on his history. I did find myself skimming some of the finer architectural points, but I put the blame on my impatience more than on the author, who writes well. I think the book is better read after, rather than before or during a trip to Rome. I found myself turning often to the maps in the back which are coordinated with the text.

2 comments about Knopf MapGuide: Rome (Knopf Mapguides).

1. I had checked out a book from the local library and liked it so much I came on amazon to buy that book, Fodor's Rome's 25 Best, 6th Edition (25 Best). Amazon then recommended this book to me and after looking it over decided to give it a try.
   
   My wife and I went on a 12 day cruise of the Med and ended that we 3 days in Rome right before Thanksgiving 2006 (Nov. 2006). This book more than paid for itself with all of the helpful reviews in it and suggestions. But the topper for me was the quality and size of the maps. We looked enough like tourists in the city, but this little book and it's fold out maps helped us look a little less so. They were more than details enough, and having suggestions on them we found a wonderful place to eat one night, it was great.
   
   If you want something that is small and compact, yet still provides great details in terms of maps of a city this is the book for you. And there is no huge map to fold and unfold as you walk around a city. This book breaks the city in to sections and based on where you are you have only a small map to easily unfold and use.
   
   I highly recommend this book.



2. Ok.. I am a travel book freak. This is the best travel guide around. I have about seven of them Barcelona,Rome,Naples,New York, Venice etc... Everything about this guide is great. Visually great ...Small fits in
   your pocket or small purse Great maps.. hard to get lost even in Venice. Great recommends ,hotels, food and.. I am a shopper.. Absolutely great & unusual shops ..None of the bad tourist gear only the styling gear.. .I had five guides to Rome over two trips to Rome this is the one we used every day...Do not go anywhere without this guide if there is one available for the destination Im will be traveling to....

2 comments about The Secrets of Rome: Love and Death in the Eternal City.

1. this is an excellent translation of the erudite work by Corrado Augias of the history of Rome. Through a series of stories Augias transports the reader between the past and present, in what seems a first hand account of the history of this great city. the chapters can be read as individual essays, and the footnotes make for great reference for interested readers. I can see a Secrets of Rome Part II in the future.



2. This is a very interesting book, one of the best that I have read on Rome.
   It is not a guide book with an in depth narration of several sites and personages. A must read!

1 comments about Wallpaper City Guide: Rome (Wallpaper City Guide).

1. This is an inexpensive guide for wannabe Beautiful People with a lot of money to spend in Rome. Interesting tips on contemporary design, however.

5 comments about Rick Steves' Italy Map: Including Rome, Florence, Venice and Siena City (Rick Steves).

1. I guess it comes with the territory of a travel guide that is this popular. I bought a few books to plan a 2 week vacation in Italy. This travel guide had great ideas, but I was unable to book a single hotel in Rick Steve's book. I travelled in October and tried to make reservations in the previous April-May. My husband and I both felt it would have been wiser and probably cheaper to travel with a tour company that allows a lot of individual choices, instead making all our reservations and plans ourselves.



2. My wife and went to Italy in Sept. 2007, it was amazing to see how many people had the same book. We really liked the book for the suggestions for sites (rating system he uses for must sees) and suggestions for eating estabishments. I thought the suggestions for lodging were a little bit more then our budget could afford...there are great travel sites on the web that can offer lodging at reasonable prices, we did go to some of the dining places and they were great.



3. Rick Steves is nerdy but he does his homework. Don't think about planning a trip to Italy without this book. Read the book before going to Italy and keep it in your carry-on when traveling. I'd like even more help with places to stay and to eat but the book still proved to be indispensable.



4. 1/2 of the cities i visited were not on his book. took it to italy with me, left it in the bag most of the time.



5. I put "MAP REVIEW" in my title, as it seems that most of the reviews here are for the book? How does that make sense?
   
   This map was good for us as it covered our itinerary - Venice, Florence, Siena, and Rome. The landmarks were helpful, as well as the designations for pedestrian areas and shopping areas. The map is fairly heavy paper, so it will last even if it's not laminated.
   
   My main complaint is the map didn't have enough street level information. So if you're navigating by yourself, you may need another map if you're looking for a particular street location. Also, the maps are marked with the English version of the names of landmarks; for me, I find this confusing when walking around a city.

5 comments about Household Gods.

1. This book is about a 20th century American lawyer who wakes up one morning to find herself living in the world of ancient Rome. I was very eager to read it, but I was disappointed.
   
   The first 52 pages are entirely set in the present, as are the last 78 pages. These pages are designed to show us the contrast between modern life and ancient life, but readers already know about the present. We don't need to spend the equivalent of a short novel on it, especially given that the protagonist, Nicole, is off-putting. She is self-centered, prudish, self-righteous, bigoted, hypocritical, and constantly simmering with petty hostility. For example, when her regular babysitter decides to give notice due to family circumstances, Nicole's only reason for not having her arrested by the INS is that the INS might end up helping the babysitter. She is a repulsive human being.
   
   Nicole is also unbelievably stupid. She wishes herself back to ancient Rome, and she is then *shocked* to discover that water was not chlorinated, that slavery existed, that women lacked legal rights, that animals and people were killed in the gladiatorial arena, and so on. There has been some debate, in the reviews below, as to whether it is realistic for Nicole to be as stupid as she is (she must have excelled in college, or else would not have made it into law school). Realistic or not, it is *painful* for the reader to inhabit such a mean-spirited and smugly ignorant character. That the authors intend for us to sympathize with her only makes it worse.



2. A good concept but had very little substance.modern Lady lawyer went back in time to anciant Rome.Found herself in another body.Was suprised at the horrors of that time.Slavery,sanatary conditions,killings in the arena,lack of modern medecines ECT,ECT.She had to have known these things so why the suprise.After the first 150 mundane pages of a 500 page book we find ourselves reading about someones humdrum day by day life.By this time I started skimming over the pages trying to find something of interest.There was a epedemic where her daughter,mother and lover died.A friend died in child birth.She got in dutch with her family by setting her slave free.By page 300 I gave up on this one as a waste of time.There are a lot of better books out there for me to read.



3. Wow, I am about 90 pages into this book and I dislike the main character os much that I almost started to put the book down and not finish it. I am glad I came here to read the reviews first, because at least now I know the book might get better and I am not the only one who thinks Nicole is the biggest airhead, bigot, racist, and just plain stupid person ever. When she first realizes that she is in ancient Rome, it takes her a long time to wonder how her kids are doing back in LA and even then she only gives it a few minutes consideration. And giggles that her ex will have to take the kids with him. Giggles? And when the smell of the place almost gags her and she sees men urinating in public, why would she drink the water? Is anyone really that dumb? Oh yea, I forgot, she is a woman, that makes her a giggling imbecile, nevermind that she graduated from law school. Maybe they did not have regular classes at that college like history and personal hygiene. I will keep reading for another 100 pages and if she still makes me shake my head every page, I will give up. If not, I will follow up with another review....



4. Yes, Nicole is a neurotic, hateful, selfish, woman who takes everything personally and assumes the worst. And did I say self-righteous, too? That's the point of it. It contributes to the story. I couldn't stand her either! But when she wants to get away, part of the reason she gets sent to Roman times by Liber and Libera is so she WAKES UP and grows some awareness that the world doesn't revolve around her.
   
   Bit by bit, simply because of the circumstances and the people, she becomes more cognizant of her shortcomings in the way she has always thought and made assumptions. And her transformation is very realistic and commendable as the novel progresses.
   
   Because ironically enough, you start to wonder if YOU could hack that stuff she's going through. Of course she didn't have a lot of choice, unless she wanted to simply commit suicide, but compared to other go-back-in history stories (medieval england couldn't have been half so difficult as ancient rome!), she faced some pretty nasty things.
   
   Suddenly, between your appreciation for what she's dealing with, and the contemplation of those circumstances and comparisons that contribute to her becoming a different person, you come to appreciate her and admire her for her stamina, the events that give her cause to consider a different behavioral response, and what she notices as a result of it.
   
   She comes to see herself as we see her in the beginning. After a while in ancient Roman times, she gets it. And she takes it back with her. And her life is very different.
   
   I recommend the book. Understand there's a reason why she's been created as she is and keep reading. Try not to condemn her for the way she's been written - after all, why exemplify the very charachteristics that you don't like in the protagonist?



5. I thought that the protagonist was a normal person. Judgmental, yes -- as is the vast majority of humankind. I would venture to guess that she uncomfortably reflects qualities in some readers. Her prejudices stem from her modern health beliefs and personal hatred of alcohol due to her father being a substance abuser. I found them annoying too -- but I loved watching her blossom out of them and grow to appreciate her modern life in a deep way.
   
   There was a theme of feminism throughout which I loved, because she neither 'learned her place' nor became hateful and bitter, but came to realize that the modern world offered her so many opportunities which she ignored because she was not willing to take risks or demand what she deserved. Her life in the past taught her what REAL risks are and that one person really can make a difference, and she came back understanding that women still don't have equality, but DO have much more of a chance for it than they did in the past.
   
   It has been a long time since I've read a book in one sitting, especially one this long. I stayed up all night because I could not put it down until I had read all 664 pages! Definitely worth a purchase.

1 comments about Fodor's Rome's 25 Best, 7th Edition (25 Best).

1. My husband and I used the the Fodor's 25 Best for Rome, Venice, and Florence on a recent trip to Italy, and we found them extremely valuable. The compact size makes them light and easy to stick in a purse or pocket, and yet they have all of the information that a traveler needs, from tips on beating the crowds to recommendations for excellent restaurants. Also contains a pull-out map. Features like a two-day itinerary and suggestions for certain types of of activities are very helpful.

No comments about LUXE Rome (1st Edition) (LUXE City Guides).

5 comments about Enslaved.

1. I enjoyed this book because it immediately "enslaved" my imagination. If you are looking for a book to read just for pure enjoyment then I suggest this book. I also implore you to read it with the intention and realization that this is fiction, meant to be nothing more...nor nothing less.



2. You know i sometimes wonder if people are reading the same book i must admit that some of virginia henley books are a little out there but anyway...
   
   
   LOVED IT i detest time travel romance and this was a kind of getting my feet wet to it..the concept was good it was almost like a kismet thing.I think the heroine held her own and not too many heroines can say they lost their virginity twice and loved both Marcus/Mark...good story you know historical romance novels it goes with the time and period of how they would act.
   
   its like i always say a bad reivew can really downplay a good book and a good review can really up play a bad book, because of some of the bad reviews for this book I almost didn't read it but i'm glad i change my mind



3. I adore this book. It is my favourite historical romance novel. I totally fell in love with the heroine and the hero. Diana is the epitome of femininity and sensuality and Mark/Marcus is the virile Roman conquerer. If I were a story book character I would want to be Diana who is portrayed as a perfect goddess. Mark/Marcus is a dream lover come to life when you turn the pages of this treasure. I was deeply touched by the way the love unfolded between the two characters, how their mutual contempt turned to passion and lust then into love.



4. This book was so high rated on Amazon I had to read it myself. The story had some very high moments, but some not so great ones as well. I wasn't happy with the way the romance played out, it was very unsatisfying to me. Also, there were too many sex scenes in the book. Yea, one when the characters get together is very satisfying, but the book verged on soft core porn. I also wasn't thrilled by some of the things our Hero did, though he seemed to redeem himself... at times. Allin allthe story was great, but I wasn't thrilled with the results. I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from reading this book, there were moments that were great, it just wasn't my cup of tea.



5. This is definitely one of the best romance books I've read historical or not. It is the story of Lady Diana Davenport who lives in regency England and is totally dismissive of men of her age as fops and fools. But this is all about to change; Diana is transported back in time, where Bath was ruled by Romans! She becomes the prisoner of General Marcus Magnus, a hardened soldier who is certainly not a fop but someone she could fall for if only he wasn't so arrogant and infuriating. But the passion between them is to much for either of them to ignore so we are treated to some very explicit love scenes (this is a Virginia Henley book after all, so it was expected). But the tension and the growth of feelings between them are palpable, not just descriptive and this is what saves the book of being just an erotica. Henley does a wonderful job at describing them as soul mates and the troubles they have to face until they get together(mainly caused by Marcus brother in the past as well as in the future) only add to the incedible suspense and tension.
   
   This is a lovely book, so please do not dismiss it as another erotica. I have read many "proper" romances where the feelings of the heroes and the situation bringing them together are of much less concern than in this book and if you get past the intense love scenes (the story can stand perfectly well without them), you won't be able to let it out of your hands.