The Companion Guide to Rome (Companion Guides)

by Georgina Masson (Author), Georgina Masson (Author), John Fort (Author), Tim Jepson (Primary Contributor)

• New

  Illustrated
  2009

  $25.79

  Six years after his first, very thorough, revision, John Fort has returned to the task, so that this long-honoured guidebook, regarded by the discerning visitor, since its first publication forty years ago, as THE indispensable introduction to the glories of Rome, continues to give an accurate picture of the city's treasures as they are currently displayed. This latest edition of the Guide is immeasurably enhanced by the replacement of the old street plans with new, clear versions of the itineraries that structure a volume which remains the unrivalled guide to perhaps the most beautiful and historic city in the world. John Fort, who has lived in the city for the past thirty years, walked every step of the routes described so vividly by Georgina Masson, and many more besides. In addition to checking and updating the information she provided so inimitably, he uncovered and describes a wealth of sights which slipped her notice, and accompanies the visitor through all the major museums and galleries as now arranged. The result is a guide to that incomparable array of classical, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces which will enthral first-time visitors to the Eternal City and also delight the persistent returnee with fresh inspiration and stimulation.

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $4.20

  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.