Rome

Rome, Padua & Assisi is a useful pilgrimage guide for the Jubilee Year 2000 and would serve as a good starting point for mapping out city tours. It offers a helpful historical and cultural background to each of the three cities (the most thorough is the chapter on Rome that runs well over 60 pages). As the authors discuss each city, they not only point out the sites of particular interest to visitors but also provide a list of hotels and eateries, an inventory of Jubilee 2000 events for each city, and a survivor's guide for getting around. In addition, the authors suggest other Italian destinations worth visiting. Although the descriptions of city sites are not adequately detailed, they are well ordered and clearly presented. In City Secrets: Rome, a number of architects, artists, writers, archaeologists, and historians at the prestigious American Academy in Rome write of their favorite spots in the city. Reading this book is like attending a reception at the academy and listening to academy residents offer glowing accounts of some of Rome's many treasures. Although rather small in size, it could serve as a delightful vade-mecum for tourists in Rome and provide them with an artful insight into Rome's familiar or not-so-familiar attractions. Both guides are recommended for libraries with some demand for travel books.--David I. Fulton, Our Lady of Victories Church, Baptistown, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.