atlases and maps

perfectly sized for travelling on the run! if you're in town for a short period of time and want the express route to everything, you must buy this book! the guidebook splits Rome into six sections/mini-maps highlighting places to eat, shop and visit. the opening front section gives you an overview of Rome and includes places with great views, green spaces, guided tours, churches, religious festivals, museums, shopping districts, restaurants, concerts/shows, summer festivals, tourist info, and websites to visit. the last section is a complete map of Rome's subway and rail lines with complete transport and hotel information for your holiday suggesting a handful of hotels at different price ranges. Rome airport information is handy and all public transport options are expained clearly.

all the tourist hot spots are well documented including important information regarding hours of operation, map location, entrance fees and other notables. the pictures are updated and the maps are very thorough. a little bigger than a palm pilot; with it's expandable fold-out maps, it's hard to beat this guidebook!

the book is not very thorough in detail (think of it as a cliff notes for travelling; you get the gist, but you miss out on the details). if you want historical information regarding a museum or monument you'll need a supplemental book--or just visit the place and learn all you want first hand!

while planning my Rome holiday i purchased several other Rome guidebooks but found that they stayed in the hotel while this one was taken everywhere.

About eight foldout pages, depending on how you count pages. It would make an okay addition to a full travel guide such as Rome, The Millennium Edition (Eyewitness Travel Guides, DK Publishing). [That book is indexed by Amazon.com as Eyewitness Travel Guide to Rome (Revised).]

folks, this is the best idea for a tourbook/map that i have stumbled across yet. i'm not prone to raving, but this will garner praise from me until the cows come home (bearing foot & mouth) no doubt.

so, why is this so great? first of all, it's simple and well designed. the city is broken down into sections. you turn to those pages and there is a brief description of places to eat, shop, etc. the pages then open up into a map of the section with a description of major sites in the area.

brilliant! no fumbling around a big map trying to find your street. no squinting to figure out where you are. it's easy to find landmarks, metro stops, etc.

the card stock is nice and heavy and has lasted well even in my back pocket. the descriptions have been helpful without being too lengthy. and at this price, it's quite competitive with other maps while providing much more.