Top 10 Rome (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides)

Review by A. Smith for Top 10 Rome (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides)
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I’ve read numerous travel guides, most of which I’ve dragged with me throughout the duration of my trips (often times, two or three books and various website printouts and lists). These have included the Lonely Planet, Fodor’s and Rough Guide books. All are decent, but tend to be long and tedious to thumb through quickly.

But when you factor in size, weight, cost, and coverage, I don’t think you can beat the Top 10 series. They are ideal for a few days’ stay, but might be a bit lacking if you’re in a particular city for a week or more. It has been all we’ve needed for the basis of our Rome and Venice trip planning. The hotel recommendations are a bit outdated and bare-bones, but there’s always TripAdvisor and Venere for more up-to-date and detailed info. The maps are also outstanding–they’ve made my StreetWise maps basically obsolete (for comparison, StreetWise maps cost almost as much as this book).

Detractors may quickly scoff at the whole idea of boiling everything down to “just a top 10″, but keep in mind that there are numerous “top 10 lists” throughout the book, covering many categories. The idea here is to give tourists–especially first-timers–an overview of the major sights and to provide them a basis for which to explore further, based on specific interests. Used as such, I don’t think you’ll find a better travel guide.

Review by Joseph Calusio for Top 10 Rome (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides)
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Excellent book , expecially for us travelers with too little time to do a thorough search of information on this famous city. The text is organized so that you can easily pick and choose topics of interest such as the 10 best museums. Photos and illustrations add to the ease in understanding the text as do the directions and phone numbers included for many sites and locations. Our experience reading the book combined with a few internet searches made us feel like experienced tourists even before we left for our trip. Our only tip after visiting is to come prepared and bring along your book since you cannot expect much help and/or directions after you arrive as everyone else seems to be in a hurry or just uninterested in your dilema.

Review by N. Hawkins for Top 10 Rome (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides)
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I’m of the theory that you’re best served with two travel books – a pocket sized, quick reference book and a larger, more indepth book. The pocket sized book is the one that fits into a cargo pants pocket or a jacket pocket.

I got back from a trip to Rome and while everyone had their tomes from Lonely Planet or Fodor’s out at dinner, the DK Top Ten Rome book was the one that was taken from my hands and passed around. The foldout map helps a lot and as a result, I was the navigator as we walked the streets of Rome.

If you have an infinite amount of time to see everything in Rome, then you’ll need a great book to cover everything. If you’re doing a multi-city Italian tour and only have a few days in Rome, it’s good to have a book like this to keep as a quick reference guide.