The Companion Guide to Rome (Companion Guides)

by Georgina Masson (Author), Georgina Masson (Author), John Fort (Editor)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $4.24

  This classic guide to Rome begins at the Capitol, 'rising as it does like an island of peace out of the strident roar of the Piazza Venezia in the heart of the city, leading us backwards by degrees through the centuries to the time when Rome first emerged from a collection of pastoral villages set upon seven hills...And at night it is not so difficult to picture the stately ranks of colonnaded temples crowned with gilded statues and the basilicas rearing their great bulk against the night sky, or to imagine the faint glow of the sacred fire warming the marbles of the Temple of Vesta, and above them all the vast palace of the emperors on the Palatine overshadowing the whole scene, as it then dominated the civilized world.' From this seductive start, the glories of Rome are unrolled; Masson's home was in the grounds of the Villa Pamphilj, on the outskirts of Rome, during the years when she was writing this book, and she knew Rome intimately. She has been fortunate in her reviser John Fort, resident in Rome for thirty years - who has brought this latest edition up to date.

• Used

  Paperback
  1987

  $5.73

  (The author) has an observant and enthusiastic eye, she writes elegantly and with warmth, and knows her subject inside out. SUNDAY TELEGRAPH The best guide to Rome published for many a long year SUNDAY TIMES Rome is a city with over 2,500 years of history, with buildings and art treasures representative of much of that time; as Augustus Hare wrote, the fascination lies in the discovery of 'ancient cloister and sculptured fountain, of mouldering fresco and medieval tomb - of mosaic-crowned gateway and palm-shadowed garden - and the gradually acquired knowledge of the wondrous story which clings around each of these ancient things'. Georgina Masson's book provides the perfect companion to this voyage of discovery, including both the great sights - the Colosseum, the Forum, the Vatican Palace and many more - and the smaller corners of Rome's squares and streets; she guides the visitor equally skilfully though the maze of the Roman past. And she evokes the reactions of earlier travellers to Rome, who, like the author of the twelfth-century pilgrims' guide to the marvels of the city, have been equally entranced by the city's classical monuments and its Christian heritage. Her book has long been recognised as a classic, and is now presented in a fully revised and updated edition.