Rick Steves' Rome 2004 [Paperback]

Rick Steves (Author), Gene Openshaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003 | Series: Rick Steves' Rome

Rick Steves does more than just list where to travel in Europe; he gives travelers inside information on what to visit, where to stay, and how to get there--economically and hassle-free. Travelers can delve into European culture, make friends with the locals, and experience everything Europe has to offer.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Today's tourists are as likely to be toting Rick Steves as Giorgio Armani, tasting the good life without burning through the Kids' college fund.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Avalon Travel Pub (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566915236
• ISBN-13: 978-1566915236
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,390,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rick Steves advocates smart, affordable, perspective-broadening travel. As host and writer of the popular public television series Rick Steves' Europe, and best-selling author of 40 European travel books, he encourages Americans to travel as "temporary locals." He helps American travelers connect much more intimately and authentically with Europe -- and Europeans -- for a fraction of what mainstream tourists pay.

Over the past 20 years, Rick has hosted over 100 travel shows for public television, and numerous pledge specials (raising millions of dollars for local stations). His Rick Steves' Europe TV series is carried by over 300 stations, reaching 95 percent of U.S. markets. Rick has also created two award-winning specials for public television: Rick Steves' European Christmas and the ground-breaking Rick Steves' Iran. Rick writes and co-produces his television programs through his company, Back Door Productions.

Rick Steves also hosts a weekly public radio program, Travel with Rick Steves. With a broader approach to travel everywhere, in each hour-long program Rick interviews guest travel expert, followed by listener call-ins. Travel with Rick Steves airs across the country and has spawned a popular podcast. Rick has also created a series of audio walking tour podcasts for museums and neighborhoods in Paris, Rome, Florence and Venice (with more tours, including London, coming in 2010).

Rick self-published the first edition of his travel skills book, Europe Through the Back Door (now updated annually), in 1980. He has also written more than 40 other country, city and regional guidebooks, phrase books, and "snapshot" guides. For several years, Rick Steves' Italy has been the bestselling international guidebook sold in the U.S. In 2009, Rick tackled a new genre of travel writing with Travel as a Political Act, reflecting on how a life of travel has broadened his own perspectives, and travel can be a significant force for peace and understanding in the world. Rick's books are published by Avalon Travel, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

In addition to his guidebooks, TV and radio work, Rick is a syndicated newspaper columnist with the Tribune Media Services. He appears frequently on television, radio, and online as the leading authority on European travel.

Rick took his first trip to Europe in 1969, visiting piano factories with his father, a piano importer. By the time he reached 18, Rick jokes, "I realized I didn't need my parents to travel!" He began traveling on his own, funding his trips by teaching piano lessons. In 1976, he started Europe Through the Back Door (ETBD), a business which has grown from a one-man operation to a company with a well-traveled staff of 70 full-time employees. ETBD offers free travel information through its travel center, website (www.ricksteves.com), European Railpass Guide, and free travel newsletters. ETBD also runs a successful European tour program with more than 300 departures -- attracting around 10,000 travelers -- annually.

Rick is outspoken on the need for Americans to fit better into our planet by broadening their perspectives through travel. He is also committed to his own neighborhood. He's an active member of the Lutheran church (and has hosted the ELCA's national video productions). He's a board member of NORML (working to reform marijuana laws in the USA). And Rick has provided his local YWCA with a 24-unit apartment building with which to house homeless mothers.

Rick Steves spends about a third of every year in Europe, researching guidebooks, filming TV shows, and making new discoveries for travelers. He lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington, where his office window overlooks his old junior high school.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guidebook for Some Tastes, November 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Rick Steves' Rome 2004 (Paperback)

Rick Steves concentrates on seeing the sights in Rome & travel survival fundamentals. His coverage on what to see at various sites, and his focus on walking tours and seeing what is in a specific locale is excellent. We walked everywhere and wanted to see the sights - not shop. Excellent for this purpose.

He does not focus on shopping, restaurants or hotels (there is limited coverage). He has clear opinions. He gives the facts, but also his opinion of the place and his specific recommendations. If you want book with lots of shopping and restuarant info, or just want an "opinion free" description buy something else.

If you have a week or less, are willing to use your feet, are interested in walking tours, or are focusing on seeing a lot of what Rome has to offer with limited time - the book is for you. We read (not skimmed) 5 guidebooks. His was the best.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ridiculously inaccurate and absurdly cursory, June 16, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rick Steves' Rome 2004 (Paperback)

This guidebook is hopelessly inaccurate in its details and too cursory about what it does cover to be of any use whatsoever to any reasonably thoughtful tourist.

As to the inaccuracy: I took this guide book on a recent trip to Rome. Despite the fact that it is dated 2004, it is either wildly outdated or reprehensibly sloppy. One of the highly recommended restaurants was closed, and from the looks of it not recently. Another of the highly recommended restaurants was responsible for the worst dinner we had in Rome. Anyone foolish enough to try to use the guide to find the Steves-recommended minibus tour of the Appia Antica will look in vain for a green kiosk in the Piazza Venezia. While we eventually found a tour, it was no thanks to Rick Steves!

In terms of information content, the guidebook gives the tourist much less information for the weight than, say, the Michelin or Lonely Planet guides. Do not waste precious luggage space on the Rick Steves guide--it is simply not worth lugging around.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars entirely inaccurate ..., October 22, 2004

By 

Joanne Hanrahan (El Cerrito, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rick Steves' Rome 2004 (Paperback)

... and the maps are worthless.

Two examples of the many glaring inaccuracies contained in this book:
1) Rick claims you can pick up a bus map in any tourist information kiosk. The following is an actual transcript of our conversation with the tourist info lady:
us: buon giorno. do you speak english?
info lady: of course.
us: we'd like to go to Vatican city. may we have a bus map please?
info lady: a bus map? for Roma?
us: um, yes.
info lady: no such thing exists.

2) Rick claims you can see everything you want to see in the Vatican in one morning: St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel - everything. Um, Rick? Have you ever BEEN there? Did you notice the 40,000 other people there all trying to get in to the same things? Did you notice the priceless and beautiful works of art on practically every surface? Did it occur to you that people might, perhaps, want to stop and admire a large number of them? Light a candle? Say a prayer? Some of us, also, have to behind a crowd of 35 elderly Germans to look at Michaelangelo's Pieta, and everything else.

Methinks ol' Rick either spends an average of 15 minutes apiece on the most astonishing and pleasurable spots in Rome, or is comfortable elbowing foreign senior citizens in the ribs.