Atlas of Rome: The City of Rome : The Form of the City on a 1:1000 Scale Photomap and Line Map/Slipcase

Rating:
Summary: The ultimate indulgence for Italophiles
Review: I believe this is one of the first books I ever bought on Amazon (back in 1996) and it certainly is the most expensive single book I own. This is a book of satellite images of Rome, covering essentially the entire city. How cool is that? Pretty cool, but how often have I looked at these pictures? Not terribly often. The resolution on the images is not quite good enough to see individual people. If you've ever gotten lost in Rome trying to find the Pantheon, it is kind of interesting to look at where you might have just missed the right side street, but it is not as fascinating as you might hope. One disappointment: remember that the Vatican is not part of Rome and is thus conspicuously absent from this set of photographs.

Rating:
Summary: The ultimate indulgence for Italophiles
Review: I believe this is one of the first books I ever bought on Amazon (back in 1996) and it certainly is the most expensive single book I own. This is a book of satellite images of Rome, covering essentially the entire city. How cool is that? Pretty cool, but how often have I looked at these pictures? Not terribly often. The resolution on the images is not quite good enough to see individual people. If you've ever gotten lost in Rome trying to find the Pantheon, it is kind of interesting to look at where you might have just missed the right side street, but it is not as fascinating as you might hope. One disappointment: remember that the Vatican is not part of Rome and is thus conspicuously absent from this set of photographs.

Rating:
Summary: Fine Book for a Niche Audience
Review: OK, I admit that this photomap book of the entire city of Rome is not for everyone. You have to be a Rome freak, as I am, to even consider it, and even then there are many pages which are of very limited interest. This is a very heavy book in which the most fascinating of cities has been divided into a grid of 276 squares; for each square, the left page is a line map of the area, showing street and piazza names, and the right page is the aerial photo of the area.

Here you will get to see the hidden Rome - the green, palm-shaded and formal-gardened courtyards behind all those austere walls you see from the street. And a different city is revealed: monuments like Michaelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio acquire a new splendor when observed from above, and you can see how the city emerged from its ancient origins in the way the walls curve, such as the medieval buildings that retain the curve of the long-gone Pompey's Theatre, just south of the Piazza Navona (which is itself an ancient palimpsest). Some of the aerial shots have the unintended beauty of stark modern art, like plate 113, which is a solid page of railroad tracks from the Termini station. But the Victor Emmanuele monument, which fills an entire page, looks just as pompous from the air as it does from the ground. While the Vatican is not a part of Rome and is not included in the grid, the book does include a wonderful aerial shot of St. Peter's Basilica and square right after the title page. It is the only monument that is identified; the book could be improved by indicating the names of monuments on the rather Spartan line maps, although most momuments can be deduced from the name of the adjacent piazza.

This is a fine book for a niche audience. But speaking of Italian map books: Amazon lists, but does not currently offer for sale, the absolutely splendid "Atlante Stradale d'Italia" - three books of maps covering northern, central, and southern Italy. If these are ever made available for sale, to these I would give my wholehearted endorsement to all lovers of Italy.

Rating:
Summary: Fine Book for a Niche Audience
Review: OK, I admit that this photomap book of the entire city of Rome is not for everyone. You have to be a Rome freak, as I am, to even consider it, and even then there are many pages which are of very limited interest. This is a very heavy book in which the most fascinating of cities has been divided into a grid of 276 squares; for each square, the left page is a line map of the area, showing street and piazza names, and the right page is the aerial photo of the area.

Here you will get to see the hidden Rome - the green, palm-shaded and formal-gardened courtyards behind all those austere walls you see from the street. And a different city is revealed: monuments like Michaelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio acquire a new splendor when observed from above, and you can see how the city emerged from its ancient origins in the way the walls curve, such as the medieval buildings that retain the curve of the long-gone Pompey's Theatre, just south of the Piazza Navona (which is itself an ancient palimpsest). Some of the aerial shots have the unintended beauty of stark modern art, like plate 113, which is a solid page of railroad tracks from the Termini station. But the Victor Emmanuele monument, which fills an entire page, looks just as pompous from the air as it does from the ground. While the Vatican is not a part of Rome and is not included in the grid, the book does include a wonderful aerial shot of St. Peter's Basilica and square right after the title page. It is the only monument that is identified; the book could be improved by indicating the names of monuments on the rather Spartan line maps, although most momuments can be deduced from the name of the adjacent piazza.

This is a fine book for a niche audience. But speaking of Italian map books: Amazon lists, but does not currently offer for sale, the absolutely splendid "Atlante Stradale d'Italia" - three books of maps covering northern, central, and southern Italy. If these are ever made available for sale, to these I would give my wholehearted endorsement to all lovers of Italy.