Customer Reviews

Rick Steves' Rome 2005

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm generally a fan of the Rick Steves guidebooks, and I have been ever since his Paris 2004 book helped me survive my very first trip to France. So naturally, when I booked my trip to Rome, the current Rick Steves guide was a must-buy.

And it contains the usual Rick Steves pluses: he explains how to ride public transportation, how to deal with traffic, and some other basic things that you don't consider until you are actually in a foreign country and faced with using an ATM machine in Italian, etc. He also includes several good, long walks that cover the major sights you want to see in Rome, as well as guided tours of museums and monuments.

But the Rome book, in particular, was especially weak when it came to recommending restaurants. In the Via Firenze neighborhood, which he trumpets as being the area where he usually stays, his recommended restaurants include McDonalds and an Irish pub. More often than not, the recommended restaurants have bizarre operating hours that make it inconvenient for travellers. Worst of all, when you do go to a recommended restaurant, you are seated among a dozen other Rick Steves-toting Americans.

I still believe that Rick Steves handles the practicalities of travel better than any other travel guide series, but to truly enjoy Rome, make sure you also buy a good restaurant guide so that you can enjoy the many culinary delights that Rome has to offer (i.e. not Big Macs and Guiness!).

Just back from my 8 day trip to Rome and Rick Steves' guide was invaluable. It was the first visit to Rome for my husband and I, so I actually purchased and read 4 different guide books prior to going, but brought only this one and the National Geographic guide (BTW - outdated but full of interesting history and details) along with me. This guide has helpful, practical advice in navigating the city and helped us net out what we should see and do. I also felt that his tidbits and advice helped us "do like the Romans." Rome is the most overwhelming place I have ever been (SO much to see!!!) and it would have been impossible to do without this guide. Besides being user-friendly and practical, my husband and I really appreciate the humor and perspective of the Rick Steves' books.

I would add that if you are looking for a higher-end, typical tourist experience then there is little of that in this book. Occasionally some of Rick's suggestions for dining off the beaten track were a little to non-touristy for me, however I fully agree with Rick's recommendation, about the Osterias - THE BEST food!

Rick Steve's Italian phrase book was also very practical and handy.

Just back from a week in Rome and the subject says it all; Rick's Rome 2005 has great tips for avoiding lines, finding great restaurants, the value of the money belt, the value of the metro pass and many other tips for travelers. I can't recommend the book enough for these things. Avoiding the line at the Colosseum is worth the price of the book alone. However, for someone who has traveled to Rome dozens of times, Rick is either clueless or careless about ancient Roman history as is evident in the book and his Roman travel shows; almost every entry has glaring History 101 errors. I suppose for a casual tourist it may not matter what they are looking at but if you care AT ALL about the sites you'll need more than this book. More on that at the end.

Between this book and all of Rick's shows, my wife and I were prepared for the touristy stuff of Rome. Cutting through the tour group exit in the Sistine Chapel was a great hint!! A woman with a baby attempted to pick my pocket on the subway, she was right out of Rick's book. All but a few Euros were safely tucked away in my money belt. She didn't even get the money in my pocket! Thanks Rick!!

However, I can't stress enough though that for history of the city and sites you will see that you must bring another book such as the Oxford Archaeological Guide to Rome if you wish to get ANY historical value out of seeing the sites. Rick has great touristy tips but is not well versed in ancient Roman history and in fact seems to have distaste for it. The book is rife with specific errors and general stereotypes. To him, to quote his shows, Rome was "chariots, gladiators...and persecutions," none of which are particularly important when looking at Roman history, though the games were somewhat important for keeping the masses in the city of Rome itself happy.

Examples of errors in the book:

1. Most egregious specific error: the explanation of SPQR. As most of you probably know, it means Senatus Populusque Romanus: the Senate and People of Rome. Rick says it is Senatus Publicus Q Romanus. Yikes! All one has to do is look up at the inscription on the Arch of Titus in the forum to get this right, or at some of the tee-shirts for sale around Rome.

2. His discussion of the Colosseum/Flavian Amphitheater makes it seem bloodier than it was. Most fights between gladiators did not end in death as gladiators were an investment, one did not kill them off recklessly. Fights that ended in death were anywhere from 5% to 50% of fights, depending on whose estimate one takes. Most historians estimate around 10 percent of fights ended in death.

2. The discussion of the forum is a bare sketch of what you will see when there. He refers to gleaming white marble buildings one would have seen but all the buildings would have been colorfully painted, just like statues were painted. There are dozens of things to learn about in the forum, not just the 15 items he mentions.

3. Brutus was NOT Julius Caesar's adopted son, which Rick says twice.

4. Senators were not elected, as he claims, though some positions they might hold were elected.

5. His description of religion in ancient Rome as stale and empty is out of an outdated 19th century textbook. It was neither stale nor empty spiritually and fell to monotheism only at the point of a sword, not the word. He refers several times to the jubilant heady times when Christianity was legalized and some of the older churches one will see could be openly built. They may have been jubilant, heady times to the Christians but to the Romans, 95+% of whom remained traditional or "pagan" in their religion, those were confusing, troubling, even terrifying times as their ancestral ways were attacked, individuals were persecuted and often killed for following them and their temples destroyed or converted to other uses. Their world was falling apart, being destroyed, and for little purpose that they could see.

In this vein, Rick's distaste for the Romans' history and their ancestral religion shows when he refers to a statue of Minerva as "It's big, it's gaudy, it's a weird goddess from a pagan cult." Elsewhere referring to a Mithraeum below San Clemente that "there is nowhere better to experience this weird cult." Such editorial comments and others cannot help get readers interested in this subjects. One might as well alternatively say, "it's massive, it's tacky, St. Peter's Basilica is a poor substitute for the ancient buildings its stones were stolen from." Such a statement would be no better in a guidebook but his comment is the equivalent.

Speaking of religion, Rick uses the old term Counter-Reformation throughout his book, whereas it is generally called the Catholic Reformation today.

6. While the Pantheon is called the "pantheon" or temple to all the Gods as Rick says, no one really knows what the building was used for, whether a temple, part of a public bath, or some other ceremonial use.

7. Constant reference in the book to emperors worshipped as Gods on earth. In Rome, the emperors were not worshipped during their lifetime, this occurred only in the provinces, mostly in the East. The Romans traditionally found such practices distasteful; they saw the emperor often and knew he was just a man and died as easily as any other man. Some emperors were deified after death though but that is a far cry from being worshipped while alive.

7. In S. Giovanni Laterano (St. John Lateran) the statue in the atrium is not Constantine as Rick says but Constantius II, his son. Also, the bronze columns inside did not come from the temple of Jupiter but from public law basilicas. No one knows specifically from what buildings. Rick can't be entirely blamed, the labels in the church say it is Constantine but if he did a few minutes research he would see it isn't true. This is where a book like the Oxford Archeological Guide comes in handy.

8. The stadium or stadio on the Palatine was not a stadium or "rec room" as such but a garden for the emperors shaped like a stadium.

So, in closing, bring this book to Rome and never forget it in your hotel room, it is invaluable for navigating the tourist traps but also bring another book for historical info.

This was a very helpful book, we took it with us. I find all his stuff, videos, books, etc. to be very helpful and practical.

This is THE BEST guide to getting the best out of Rome. It will save you time and money and should be the first thing you pack. I had never heard of Rick Steves before buying this, now I recommend it to everyone! Great value and a wealth of information to make the most of your holiday. Easy reading style too. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I planned a three week trip to Europe and could not have done it without Rick Steve's guide books. I completely, without any reservation, reccommend this book to anyone going to Rome. It helped me prioritize my time and orient myself to Rome. Along with Rome, I also bought Venice, London, and Paris. All were equally fantastic. The guide books were great in terms of which sights are a must and which are not, what restaurants were good, where to stay, local transportation, and little hints here and there. The two cities for which I did not have Rick's guide books weren't as successful.

This guidebook is excellent, exactly what is expected from a Steve Ricks guidebook.

Rick Steves' books, as his shows, are great resources to consider when traveling abroad. This guide was no exception.