Grasping for the Wind

Rome 2007

As I sit here at work listening to Les Miserables on my computer and thinking about my upcoming trip to Rome (Italy not Georgia), I started thinking about how much I love using Rick Steves’ guide books. City by City or Country by Country or Region by Region, Steves has plotted (almost completely on his own, I might add) the best routes around the city, the best ways to get there, hotel accommodations, food, the best sites, and all in slim volumes you can carry with you on the trip.

Since Rome is my next destination, I’ve been using the Rome 2006 book (I borrowed it from the pops) to plan my trip so that my lovely wife can just enjoy her first ever visit to the city. (I’ve been twice before, but it never gets old, only older.) The Vatican, The Borghese Gallery, The Christian Catacombs, St. Peter’s, and the fountains of Rome will all be easy to get to and easy to learn about, thanks to Rick Steves.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Steves includes little blips about each site, so that you get the key historical, architectural, and cultural knowledge about the sites? Wonderful! I have a guideline, a guidebook, that shows me the general outline of how to enjoy the city, thereby freeing me up to do so without any worry.

There are better books out there if a person were interested in more history or cultural context. Lonely Planet and Eyewitness Guidebooks do a good job of that, but truly in a guidebook I'm really looking for answers to my practical questions, such as how to use the public toilets in Paris (or whether I ought to) and the best and cheapest places to eat, especially with the dollar to Euro exchange rate.

No, for history and culture, I'll read a book from the history shelves on these cities, but for getting around the modern city, give me Rick Steves.

Posted by John on March 21, 2007 02:06 PM | Posted to Nonfiction
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