Recently spent a week in Rome with the family. My 12th trip, the family’s first. We took Rick’s book and DK Eyewitness Travel Rome. Rick’s book is a great book. Lots of detail and a clear picture of some out of the way places in Rome. Rick has a good eye and his research is second to none. His descriptions of places and events are as good, or better, than a tour guide. That is the good, and bad, news.

If you are interested in what Rick is interested in, you’ll do great. If not, you may miss out on a lot of sights and attractions. Some of his favorite places are virtually next to other attractions of which his book makes no mention.

Rick’s tours and focus have a definite “Christian” slant. While early Christianity and the Catholic Church play a huge role in Rome and its’ place in history, I felt his self guided tours and places to visit steered the reader more to this part of Rome than necessary.

On the other hand, the DK Eyewitness Traveler Rome packs a tremendous amount into their book, but lacks the detail and descriptions of Rick’s book.

We used each book about evenly, with a slight advantage to the DK book. Towards the end of our stay, after becoming more comfortable in our surroundings, we found ourselves using the DK book more and more.

A hint that neither book mention: Men..wear pants and polo or short sleeve shirts; women and girls…forget about the short-shorts, tank, tops, or spaghetti strap tops. Many, many of the attractions associated with the Church, from the Vatican to The Capuchin Monks Crypt, REQUIRE modest dress. Women must have covered shoulders and appropriate length leg coverings (like capris or a skirt). Likewise men shouldn’t show up in shorts and muscle t-shirts.

Also for women…those great looking sandals you like so much…ok to bring them, but not the best thing for walking around Rome. Most of the tourist areas are cobble stone or Roman roads. Comfort is a must.
Rating: 3 / 5

I am really glad I purchased this for our recent family trip to Rome. We did use it ALOT! It doesn’t have everything in Rome to see but it has all the Majors!! Was especially helpful when we didn’t really know the background story on some of the peices in the National History Museum. This book is really good if you don’t plan on taking tours in Rome with is almost impossible with how many tours out there that they offer you. Maps are especially helpful for the areas where your bigger map doesn’t go into as much detail.
Rating: 4 / 5

Before I left for Rome, I was considering not getting a tour guide at all. I figured, with a place that has so many tourists it certainly must be easy to know where to go and find out the history of what you are looking at. However, that’s not the case.

I decided at the last minute to order this book, and boy was I happy that I did so.

I spent five days in Rome (which is just about the perfect amount of time to see everything) and brought this book with me everywhere I went. Let me tell you, it was a necessity.

I was shocked that every single tourist attraction (the Colosseum, Pantheon, Forum, Vatican, etc.) did not offer any information at all about the history of what exactly it was that you were looking at. Some of these places let you rent an audio guide with headphones for a fee, however I find those annoying and they don’t always tell you the whole story. If it were not for me purchasing this book, I wouldn’t have learned half of the stuff that I did. Constantly throughout my whole vacation, I was shocked to see tourists walking around looking at these ancient ruins without any clue at all what exactly it was that they were looking at, because there are no types of historical information presented to you when you visit them (Literally! There’s no signs that say what something is, no pamphlets that you can pick up, nothing!) Without this book, my vacation would have been totally different.

The self-guided tours in this book are fantastic. Rick Steves will have you walk into a museum, and literally step-by-step he points out where certain objects in the museum are and gives you plenty of background information, which is presented to you in a light-hearted, fun way. This was definitely most beneficial at the Forum and Palatine Hill, where you literally walk amongst hundreds of ancient ruins that have no signs or explanations telling you exactly what it is that you’re looking at.

My favorite parts of the book were the self-guided Night Walk Tour, and also the self-guided tour of Trastevere. Those are definite musts to do on your trip; we had a lot of fun. He even points out great places to get gelato and cappuccino along the way! It felt almost like a scavenger hunt – it was both educational and fun.

The tone of the book is very conversational and quite often humorous. It is not a dull, boring history book at all. Rick Steves really brings excitement into the trip. He also presents everything in an even, unbiased way, not trying to re-write history (for example, many items used to build and decorate some churches and other buildings were often stolen from other people/places, etc). This was especially beneficial in a place such as the Vatican Museum, where if I had to guess a lot of that type of information was probably not presented to the people who rented the Vatican’s self-created audio guide headphones.

I will definitely advise anyone visiting Rome that bringing this guide book with them is a must (and literally, carry it around with you everywhere, you won’t regret it. It can fit in a jacket or a small bag. I carried it in my backpack, which I brought with me everywhere. Don’t worry about feeling like a tourist when you take it out and read it while standing directly in front of the site that you are reading about – plenty of people were doing that, it is very beneficial. Of course, you don’t want the fact that you are a tourist to stick out like a sore thumb due to pickpockets, so be somewhat careful). If you don’t buy this particular guide book, then at least buy some other guide book to carry around. Without a guide book, your trip to Rome will be less interesting, again due to the lack of information that’s presented to you at the actual sites.

This was the first Rick Steves book that I bought, and the next time I go anywhere else in Europe, I now plan on getting his other books too.
Rating: 5 / 5