Blue Guide Rome [Paperback]

]I must confess that some of the reviews for the Blue Guides leave me a bit puzzled. If you know what you are in for, this is one amazing book.

To begin with, I suppose that there are two different kinds of guides: Those that help you plan your trip, and those that will aid you during your trip. Some try to do both and do so with some level of proficiency. Few do both really well. Some do one really well.

My go-to guides for those that will help me plan my trips are the Eyewitness Guides. My first trip to Rome was as a fourth-year PhD student in 2005. That Rome (Eyewitness Travel Guides) has gone back with me on each subsequent trip. It's concise, has decent pictures, user friendly maps. It would be fine for, say, the kind of person who goes into the Louvre in Paris and wants to see only the Venus de Milo, Leonardo's Mona Lisa, and the Hellenistic Winged Victory.

However, if you are the kind of traveler who wants to find the *other* great stuff in the Louvre; the Davids, the Delacroixs, Egyptian stuff, then The Blue Guide is for you. Many of my art history nerd budides have recommended these for years, and I've always stayed away. I'm an Eyewitness Guide man, dammit! But my Rome Blue Guide arrived today, and I am totally sold. Having read a few sections, I can say that the writing is engaging, lively, and while there are not hundreds of images, there are dozens, they are of good quality, and the floor plans and diagrams are excellent. The amount of detail and the thoroughness of the writing is fantastic. For example, San Clemente is a a real gem of an early Christian church (4th c.; the upper chapel is much older). My Eyewitness Guide gives it a single paragraph. The Blue Guide gives it five pages. Click on the "Look Inside" feature and peruse the Table of Contents. The proof of its thoroughness is all there. The few pages of maps in the back are fine (I don't really need them any more), but I would still get a Streetwise Rome (Streetwise) version if you are new to Rome.

The Blue Guide does not pretend to be both a 'before your trip' planning guide and a 'take it with you' guide. This is very much a book you will carry with you in and about Rome. And trust me on this: By the time you get to Rome, you will not care about the hotel section in your travel guide: you'll already have booked one! Need to find a place to eat? Ask the hotel. Or, if you are like me, bring along both books. I'll still bring along my trusty Eyewitness Guide. But the Blue Guide will be in the backpack far more often.

How amazing is this book? I am planning on teaching a History of Rome class at the university where I teach, and the Rome Blue Guide will be one of the required texts. It is a book that you will want to take with you on your trip, and it will prove well worth its $20 cost.

I lived in Rome for a summer, studying Latin. My classmates and I had most of the usual guidebooks between us and the Blue Guide was far and away the best guide of them all. Nothing else comes close to the depth and breadth of material in the Blue Guides. True, they don't give you information about hotels or restaurants, but I assume travel accommodations are made before you arrive in a city and if you really want a Michelin restaurant, consult a Michelin guide. But with these qualified exceptions, the Blue Guide has detailed information on everything you could possibly encounter in Rome. It is a fat little book, but it saves you the effort of carrying anything else.

PS - for maps, I recommend getting Streetwise Rome. It's laminated, discreet, easy to use and folds smoothly.

In-deep information about historic places in Rome, including very useful floor plans of museums, churches and archeological centers. This book is for the traveler interested in learning and understanding the history and culture of Rome, not for the one going just for taking pictures by the monuments. You will not need a tour guide with this book.

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