Lonely Planet: Rome City Guide [Paperback]

Duncan Garwood (Author), Abigail Hole (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2008

Extensive new color sections exploring contemporary and historical highlights. New introductory chapter gives a neighborhood-by-neighborhood snapshot of Italy's most visited city. Hot tips on the best festivals, food markets, arts venues, open-air opera and cinema, and some seriously sexy clubs. Expanded history, art, architecture, and food coverage.

Editorial Reviews

Review

…Lonely Planet for honesty, history, irreverence and budget.' --Esquire

From the Publisher

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At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travelers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travelers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
*We update our guidebooks by visiting thousands of places in person to get the details right and tell it as it is.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travelers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travelers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 322 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 5 edition (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741046599
• ISBN-13: 978-1741046595
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #903,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overall, but iffy restaurant recommendations, August 15, 2005

By 

Bradley Baillod (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lonely Planet Rome (Paperback)

I took this book to Rome in 2004. It covered the sights well enough, and I managed to get a very decent hotel using its recommendations. The restaurant list was where it was weakest. I did much better eating at restaurants that were not in the book--its selections, when I ate at them, were mediocre to not very good at all.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent all-round guide to visiting Rome, January 8, 2007

By 

Richard Walker (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Rome (Paperback)

I just (January 2007) spent six days with this guide as my constant companion on a holiday in Rome. I also saw many other people carrying this book around with them - so it seems it is a popular choice! I would say this book was an essential part of the success of my trip.

* Walking around central Rome I noticed that every other person seemed to be carrying some sort of map! The maps in the guide are clear enough for navigation in the city - once you understand their limits. For example, not every street is shown and/or labelled, but in the centre of the city you're never all that far away from a street that _is_ shown. Once I got the hang of the rather chaotic way the streets work, I felt comfortable with wandering around for a while and then finding my place on the map. But if (like me) you had booked a room in a hotel well outside the city centre, you will want to get a proper map of Rome and/or take a printout of the area from Google Maps - I did both. But in the city centre it's much easier to have the guide open to the map pages than to use a large folding map.

* In the shopping section there is a strong (but certainly not exclusive) emphasis on clothes/fashion/design. There's no doubt that this correctly reflects the vast number of such shops in Rome. Nevertheless, that is not my sort of thing and I would have liked more coverage of other types of store.

* The walking tour section is excellent. I did two of the walks pretty much as per the directions and found them very enjoyable. Be aware though that if you want to go in to the places on the tour you need to check opening times - for example, I started the Trastevere tour at about 10:30 and by the time I got to the second half of the tour most of the places were closed. Well, that was my fault - the book gives opening times for the places mentioned on the tours.

* Every place mentioned has specific directions on how to use public transport (metro and/or bus) to get there from Termini station - these directions were invaluable and I relied on them many times.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing guide, March 15, 2008

By 

Keith A. Preble (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lonely Planet: Rome City Guide (Paperback)

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.