Lonely Planet Rome City Guide [With Pull-Out Map]

by Abigail Hole and Duncan Garwood

Book Overview

This city guide to Rome is packed with the best places to wine and dine, from trendy bars to five-star restaurants. There is an historical overview of the city, an extensive map section for finding... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1741793238
• ISBN13: 9781741793239
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Sufficient guide, Lonely Planet style

I spent about 7 days in Rome, and found this guide very practical. I also had the Green Guide (Guide Vert-Italy) which wasn't so great for Rome-only. First, Lonely Planet guides have the worst physical quality of any guides. Maps are illegible as they are black and white and there are almost no photos. Second, the guides are not great at emphasizing the "must sees"; everything is wonderful. LP does have a "see in a day" or "see in two days" section, but I have found this itinerary mediocre and particular to individual tastes (I for example do not care to sit in a fancy restaurant for lunch for 3 hours). The only other negative thing I can say about LP is that they recommended Perugia versus Assissi, though the latter was probably nicer and closer (though I didn't go due to LP's recommendation). But LP did have some great area sites, including Tivoli, Ostia Antiqua, and others. LP is great in the practical areas - bus lines, train routes and schedules, etc. LP consistently surpasses all other guide books in this area. In general, I do not focus a lot on shopping or restaurants. Serious "tourists" are always walking around and seeing sites, and tend to eat when hungry rather than go to a particular restaurant. LP also has great budget lodgings listed, which in Rome is quite important. Hostels were consistently higher quality, based on some conversations I had with people, than hotels. Eyewitness guides have better graphics and maps, for example, though you can get decent enough maps of Rome from hotels, and most of the historic sites have passable explanations and illustrations, either in brochures, books you buy, or on display. In terms of total number of places/sites, LP tends to win precisely because they have so few graphics. I think LP could vastly improve just by adding color maps and a few more photos, and still keep the same variety and quantity of information. LP Rome tends to be best if you have a lot of time and you don't mind reading through the book several times. Otherwise, a more easier book such as Eyewitness might be better because it will cut out some of the smaller sites that LP mentions.

This guide saved us in Rome!

This book saved my husband and me in Rome earlier this year. The friends we were traveling with had purchased the Lonely Planet Italy guidebook but it did not have nearly enough information to get us around Rome. This guide provided excellent walking tours and information on the major sites in Rome. Its multiple maps of many parts of the city made navigating the often twisty streets of the city more managegable. Definately a must for any first time traveler to Rome!

Excellent all-round guide to visiting Rome

I just (January 2007) spent six days with this guide as my constant companion on a holiday in 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. * 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

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

Good overall, but iffy restaurant recommendations

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