Fodor's Pocket Rome 2001

by FODOR'S

• ISBN13: 9780679006794
• ISBN10: 0679006796
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-01-09
• Publisher: Fodor's

Summary

Fodor's Pocket Guides are designed for people who just want the highlights. They contain full, rich descriptions of major cities around the globe including the most worthy sights, the best restaurants and lodging, plus shopping, nightlife, and outdoors highlights - all in a new trim, petit package. All the basics you need to help you decide what to see and do in the time you have. Smart contacts and detailed practical information, including the scoop on public transportation, local holidays, what to pack, and more. The very best dining and lodging in every price range. Great recommendations for shopping nightlife, outdoor, activities, and essential side trips. Detailed maps with sights, restaurants, night spots, and hotels clearly marked. Easy-to-use new interior design with blue ink and fun graphics.

Table of Contents

On the Road with Fodor's	iv
Don't Forget to Write	iv
introducing rome	3	(8)
here and there	11	(58)
eating out	69	(20)
shopping	89	(12)
outdoor activities and sports	101	(6)
nightlife and the arts	107	(8)
side trips	115	(16)
where to stay	131	(19)
practical information	150	(42)
italian vocabulary	192	(6)
menu guide	198	(3)
index	201

Excerpts

Introducing Rome

However you arrive in Rome, you can tell by the traffic that you are entering a grand nexus: all roads lead to Rome. As you enter the city proper, edifices, icons, and images to match your expectations take shape: a bridge with heroic statues along its parapets; a towering cake of ornate marble decorated with allegorical figures in extravagant poses; a piazza and an obelisk under an umbrella of pine trees; a massive stone arena, even bigger than you imagined, that you realize with awe is the fabled Colosseum.

More than Florence, more than Venice, Rome is Italy's treasure trove, packed as it is with masterpieces from more than two millennia of artistic achievement -- for this is where Republican Rome once bustled around the buildings of the Roman Forum, centuries later Michelangelo Buonarroti painted the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, and in modern times, Federico Fellini filmed and at Cinecitta' Studios.

Rome's 2,700 years of history are laid open with every step. Ancient Rome rubs shoulders with the Medieval, the modern runs into the Renaissance, and the result is like nothing so much as an open-air museum, a city that glories in its glories and is a monument to itself. Ancient Romans, Vandals, Popes and the Borgias, Michelangelo and Bernini, Napole'on, and Mussolini all left their physical, cultural, and spiritual marks on the city. Today Rome's formidable legacy is upheld by its people, their history knit into the fabric of their everyday lives. Students walk dogs in the park that was once the mausoleum of the family of the Emperor Augustus; Raphaelesque madonnas line up for buses on busy corners; a priest in flowing robes walks through a medieval piazza talking on a cell phone. Modern Rome has one foot in the past, one in the present -- a delightful stance that allows you to have an espresso in a square designed by Bernini, then take the Metro back to your hotel room in a renovated Renaissance palace. "When you first come here you assume that you must burrow about in ruins and prowl in museums to get back to the days of Numa Pompilius or Mark Antony," Maud Howe observes in her book "It is not necessary; you only have to live, and the common happenings of daily life -- yes, even the trolley car and your bicycle -- carry you back in turn to the Dark Ages, to the early Christians, even to prehistoric Rome."

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Excerpted from Rome 2001: The All-in-One Guide to the Best of the City Packed with Places to Eat, Sleep, Shop and Explore by Fodor's Travel Publications, Inc. Staff
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.