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Rome Blue Guide (9th edn) (Blue Guides S.) |  | Author: Alta Macadam
Publisher: Blue Guides
Category: Book
List Price: £15.95
Buy Used: £12.63
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You Save: £3.32 (21%)
Used (3) from £12.63
Seller: awesome_books_001
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 315940
Media: Paperback
Edition: 9th Revised edition
Pages: 624
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 1905131119
EAN: 9781905131112
ASIN: 1905131119
Publication Date: February 3, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
excellent once you're there November 1, 2004
skeleton bob
40 out of 40 found this review helpful
Buying guidebooks is always a difficult choice: whether to go for "nice pics, little info" or "lots of info no pics" or "where to stay, what to eat but not what to see". Although lighter on the pictorial side than some guides, this is THE book to take if you want to know exactly what it is that you are seeing. Superb maps of the Fora, Palatine Hill, Capitoline Museums, Vatican Museums, St Peter's and innumerable churches, along with detailed descriptions of monuments and their history, make this the most useful guide I used on my recent first visit to Rome. I took with me Lonely Planet Rome, Eyewitness Rome and this Blue Guide. The most useful before we arrived was Lonely lanet, with it's long listings of hotels etc; it was however fairly light on info once we were there and I rarely used it; it was also hopelessly out of date when it came to restaurants and shops: I only found approx 40% of those listed, others had simply disappeared- Eternal City indeed!. Eyewitness looks gorgeous and is useful for deciding what your priorities are, what you really want to see; it also has an excellent section explaining theSistene Chapel fresoes and ceiling, worth buying the book for alone. Sadly the actual amount of historic info is poor and superficial and listngs of hotels etc not enough. So we come to the Blue Guide: like Eyewitness it has fewer listings for food/accomodation and has fewer nice photos although it does have a number hand drawn illustrations scattered around the text, but for depth of information and explanation when you are standing looking at a chapel in a church you've wandered into, or want to understand exactly why this fountain/painting/square is so special (apart from that it looks nice), then this is the book to take.
Best factual book on Rome February 11, 2006
shimmytastic (Manchester)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I agree with the other reviewer - I too had access to a few different guides on my recent trip to Rome and wasn't even sure if I would take the Blue Guide as it looked a little uninpiring with just tons and tons of text - I admit to liking a book with a few nice pictures and easy to use lists of things to see etc. However, this ended up being the book I used most. Rome is such a fascinating place with so much history and meaning and frankly, the other books were pretty useless apart from giving you something to flick through and see what you may be interested in doing (apart from the Eyewitness guide which gives a map of the Sistine Chapel roof- clearly explaining each of the pictures - well worth having). Once you get to any given place, the other books had little or no information or depth but the Blue Guide was absolutely packed with details and explanations. I can safely say that had I not had this guide with me, I would have missed half of what I saw! It is particulaly essential in the Vatican Museum, and guides you through it room by room to make sure you don't miss anything. With this book, you really don't need the headphones at some extortionate price after you've just paid the entrance fee! Highly recommended to anyone wanting to know a bit more about what they are looking at apart from the fact that it's all so beautiful.
Would have been lost without it !!! July 14, 2009
Book worm (Buckinghamshire)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Rome Blue Guide (9th edn) (Blue Guides S.)
By far the best guide I have found on the market. Very informative and well researched. Great attention to detail and it was not necessary to carry any other guide.
Monuments, museums, churches and art galleries are all extremely well
described.
Sensibly sized street maps.
Best cultural guidebook to Rome once you're there. May 12, 2009
Marco M (London, UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The first time I was in Rome by myself, I took this guidebook and the DK Eyewitness guide and the lonely planet guide. I found myself using this one 90% of the time, and the other two 10% of the time.
When you're looking through it before buying it, it looks thin on photos and other pretty things, but when you're there, the information is brilliant. What it lacks in looking pretty, it more than makes up for in accurate historical and cultural information.
It takes you by the hand and walks you through every detail of every major monument in the Eternal City. The maps at the back are quite detailed, but like all guidebooks, use the internet to find hotels and/or restaurants; so ignore that info. (No guidebook will be up-to-date regarding hotel and restaurant prices etc - prices are changed quicker than a new edition of any book can be printed.)
If you're going to Rome to experience its magnificent art, architecture, history and culture, this is the only guide you will need. If you're going to Rome to party till dawn, you probably wont understand any word or concept printed in this book.
eternal city eternal blue guide January 8, 2010
Artemisia (Abruzzi, Italy)
One usually supposes that a guide is for visitors or foreigners. I have been living in Italy for the past thirty years or so and I think I can say that of the very many times I have been to Rome (or anywhere else in this country for that matter)I have never gone without taking the appropriate Blue Guide along. Like other Blue Guides the present volume tends to weigh a ton but no other guide to Rome can compare with the high level of its historical and artistic comments. Also much appreciated by English-speaking locals and of course by "double culture" creatures like myself.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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