Travel to Italy

Lonely Planet Rome: City Guides (Lonely Planet Rome)

Format: Paperback
Author: Duncan Garwood
ReleaseDate: April, 2006
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
Rating:

Excellent all-round guide to visiting 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. I just (January 2007) spent six days with this guide as my constant companion on a holiday in Rome.

* 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.

A must for a Rome vacation

Very helpful while planning a vacation & during. Excellent book.

Good overall, but iffy restaurant recommendations
It covered the sights well enough, and I managed to get a very decent hotel using its recommendations. I took this book to Rome in 2004. 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.

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