- Bruce Murphy, Alessandra de Rosa
With so many Rome guidebooks available, it's interesting to see how the "Dummies" series tackles the subject. The first thing you notice is the absence of glossy photographs; this is a book that sets out to give you information, rather than showing you pretty photographs of sights that you'll be seeing for yourself anyway.
In fact, the Dummies format provides something refreshingly different to the legions of near-identical guidebooks.Rather than divide the book according to the regions of Rome, Rome for Dummies tackles different aspects such as dining, exploring, nightlife and shopping. This almost gives it the feel of a user's guide to the city. As well as the usual appendices with popular phrases, etc, there is an easy-to-find section called "Quick Concierge" which contains advice on a range of subjects including getting babysitters and finding cashpoints. There's also a list of useful telephone numbers. Rome for Dummies is obviously written primarily for an American audience; there's information on the perils of long-haul flights, and a page on getting a US passport compared to short paragraphs for Brits, Australians, etc., but the authors have made an effort to include information for people coming from other countries.