City Secrets: Rome (Hardcover)

by Robert Kahn (Editor), Angela Hederman (Editor), Pablo Conrad (Editor) "Perhaps the most perfect public space ever built-a marvel of harmony and elegance..." (more)
Key Phrases: turtle fountain, art historian, Santa Maria, San Giovanni, Piazza Navona (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Rome, Padua & Assisi is a useful pilgrimage guide for the Jubilee Year 2000 and would serve as a good starting point for mapping out city tours. It offers a helpful historical and cultural background to each of the three cities (the most thorough is the chapter on Rome that runs well over 60 pages). As the authors discuss each city, they not only point out the sites of particular interest to visitors but also provide a list of hotels and eateries, an inventory of Jubilee 2000 events for each city, and a survivor's guide for getting around. In addition, the authors suggest other Italian destinations worth visiting. Although the descriptions of city sites are not adequately detailed, they are well ordered and clearly presented. In City Secrets: Rome, a number of architects, artists, writers, archaeologists, and historians at the prestigious American Academy in Rome write of their favorite spots in the city. Reading this book is like attending a reception at the academy and listening to academy residents offer glowing accounts of some of Rome's many treasures. Although rather small in size, it could serve as a delightful vade-mecum for tourists in Rome and provide them with an artful insight into Rome's familiar or not-so-familiar attractions. Both guides are recommended for libraries with some demand for travel books.
-David I. Fulton, Our Lady of Victories Church, Baptistown, NJ
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
New York architect Robert Kahn knows everybody, so when Gwyneth Paltrow asked him what she should see in Rome (while she was there filming The Talented Mr. Ripley), he collected travel tips from his artist, writer, and historian friends. Realizing that "everybody should have access to these invaluable opinions," Kahn, a onetime resident of the Italian Capitol, decided to publish City Secrets: Rome, a collection of tips, comments, and mini-essays, mainly about art and architecture, whose 200-plus contributors include restaurateur Danny Meyer, painter Frank Stella, architect Michael Graves, and playwright John Guare. His favorite secret? "A Clerical Shopping Spree," by art historian R.J.W. Cro (page 105), which describes the store where Kahn likes to stock up on the distinctive fuchsia sock favored by Catholic cardinals. The elegant, pocket-size book, published by the Little Bookroom, goes on sale in March. Next up? City Secrets: New York. -- New York Magazine

Now when you travel to Rome to marvel at all of the recently restored monuments, artworks and architecture, you can follow the recommendations of some of the world's preeminent artists, historians and architects. City Secrets; Rome (The Little Bookroom) is a new, compact and sophisticated guidebook filled with eloquent musings by people with a passion for the Eternal City - including architect Richard Meier, playwright John Guare and restaurateur Danny Meyer. Whether you visit the Galleria Borghese, the Pantheon, Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio, St. Peter's or the Sistine Chapel, you'll see Rome's glorious sites from very compelling-and different-perspectives. In March 2001, a City Secrets: New York City guide (with opinions from enthusiastic writers) will be available, followed by Paris and London editions. -- Town & Country

When in Rome, do as Danny Meyer, John Guare and Richard Meier do. With the notion that the discerning traveler wants the inside dope, Robert Kahn, a New York architect, canvassed poets, chefs, architects and others for their favorite haunts in "City Secrets Rome" (Little Bookroom). Mr. Meyer, the chef at Union Square Cafe, recommends La Taverna da Giovanni, a family trattoria near the Castel Sant'Angelo; Mr. Guare, the playwright, points the way to a relic, St. Thomas's finger at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and Mr. Meier, the architect, is awed by Borromini's all-white star-shaped interiors for Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza. This idiosyncratic guide helps jaded visitors see the Eternal City anew. -- The New York Times

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 266 pages
• Publisher: Little Bookroom (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892145049
• ISBN-13: 978-1892145048
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #41,632 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This item is part of The City Secrets Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, Fun, Useful, July 9, 2000

By	richard_t "richard_t" (South America) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This is a wonderful travel guide, full of interesting insights (e.g. visit the Capitoline piazza at night; sprint through the maze of the Vatican museums to the Sistine chapel to enjoy a crowd-free half-hour there) and great restaurant suggestions with helpful comments on each one. In fact, you can buy the guide for the restaurants alone and not be disappointed. Each is described in detail with suggested dishes and pithy comments, and each is marked on the map. Marking restaurants on the street map is not usually done in travel guides, but is so helpful, because as you find yourself in a particular neighborhood yearning for a good meal you can simply turn to the page and locate a number of nearby eateries. This avoids the awkward and time-consuming ordeal of locating restaurants by street address. I fully concur with editor Kahn's priorities in mentioning the touristy Spanish Steps in a few lines, but spending six insightful pages on the stunning Borghese art gallery.

This is not a stand-alone guide, as it lacks information on hotels and other important travel information (transportation, embassies, currencies, etc.), but it is a brilliant and useful tool for those who already have a standard guide book and would like a bit more, or for those who are already familiar with Rome.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tutto va bene!, April 7, 2000

By	Michele Host (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Before journeying to Rome in March, my best friend and I were lucky enough to pick up City Secrets: Rome. We quickly found that there was no need to carry around our other hefty guidebooks, because the wacky, erudite scholars who provided commentary for City Secrets gave us the insider's look at all of the monuments and museums, as well as fabulous restaurant and shopping recommendations. Although the book lacks entries on certain places that the first-time tourist might wish to see (well, the Trevi Fountain is mentioned, but with great disdain), it includes off-the-beaten-track splendors like Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza and culinary delights like Gelateria San Crispino ("the best gelato in Rome") and Vecchia Roma ("the best meal of your life"). The contributors have seen Rome from every angle and fill the pages with colorful commentary ("Seeing a white column of snow drifting down the middle of the Pantheon is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.") The only criticism is that the maps of each section of the city, while incredibly detailed,do not link up to one another, so it's often hard to figure out how to get from one spot in the Campo Dei Fiori to another north of the Pantheon. That said, "the little red book" was indispensable. We're looking forward to the rest of the series.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, September 7, 2000

By	DR DAVID S BUSH (PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This is a small, wonderful book that is a pleasure to recommend to both the novice and experienced traveler. This is not a book for anyone in need of a step-by-step itinerary planner. Rather, this book provides a series of suggested angles and perspectives from which this magnificient city can be experienced and enjoyed. By way of City Secrets Rome, my wife and I found Vecchia Roma and enjoyed one of the great restaurant experiences of our lives. At La Taverna da Giovanni, I mentioned Danny Meyer's name and received personal greetings from the chef/owner and his mother and was gifted with a platter of fantastic green olives. Capitoline Hill is spectacular anytime, but perhaps especially at night. I could keep going. The beauty of this book is that it encourages one to step outside the tyranny of the "must see" approach and explore. I hope similar approaches for other cities are forthcoming.