Rating: 
Summary: Bravo Bravo!
Review: Epstein's vignettes exude the delight, the joy and the exasperation of his day to day life. The stories are all the more captivating when you realize that Epstein is living his dream come true. This book infuses you with Rome's essence like a steamy cappucino. Watch out, or Rome's charms might captivate you, too...but then again, that might be just what you need!
Rating: 
Summary: If only life for most people was so easy.....
Review: For those who have experienced the seduction of Rome and then dreamed and acted upon building a lasting relationship, Alan Epstein speaks for us. His words paint a beautiful, yet honest, picture of the Eternal City, its charming and challenging inhabitants, and its diverse and lively neighborhoods. He has obviously fallen in love with a place and its people, and he describes the joy of food (like waiting in line for the best bread at a specific bakery), wine, conversation and sharing one's life with those who know what really matters in life. Italians love children, and Mr. Epstein recognizes this in a reverent way, while building his own family bonds in his new home. On my recent trip, I followed his Sunday morning jogging route and now understand why it is almost like finding religion. His deep respect for the rich history of Rome is felt throughout the book. For today's traveler, and especially for those who love Rome beyond reason, this is the book for you! Sorridete! La vita e bella!
Rating:
Summary: Seduction: Roman Style
Review: For those who have experienced the seduction of Rome and then dreamed and acted upon building a lasting relationship, Alan Epstein speaks for us. His words paint a beautiful, yet honest, picture of the Eternal City, its charming and challenging inhabitants, and its diverse and lively neighborhoods. He has obviously fallen in love with a place and its people, and he describes the joy of food (like waiting in line for the best bread at a specific bakery), wine, conversation and sharing one's life with those who know what really matters in life. Italians love children, and Mr. Epstein recognizes this in a reverent way, while building his own family bonds in his new home. On my recent trip, I followed his Sunday morning jogging route and now understand why it is almost like finding religion. His deep respect for the rich history of Rome is felt throughout the book. For today's traveler, and especially for those who love Rome beyond reason, this is the book for you! Sorridete! La vita e bella!
Rating:
Summary: as the romans do
Review: great book I really enjoyed reading it.I thought the author would tireof living in rome but he convinced me his love was well deserved. I was convinced it was a very enjoyable book even though the author is my son in law
Rating: 
Summary: a half-excellent book
Review: I agree with Veerby's assessment - the first half is a fun, engaging read, but after that, you wonder if there is anything bad about Rome in the least. It's great with all the men being mama's boys and women making themselves up to go to the grocer and the traffic jams and everything. I was actually surprised when he mentioned how Rome is not perfect and has its flaws in the last chapter, but he failed to elaborate in the least, aside from mentioning that many immigrants have come whose customs are different than that of the Romans, insinuating that they also brought crime with them. i would much prefer a more even-handed read, and preferably from someone who is not as obviously well-off. It makes me think of New York City, where having a little money makes the city a MUCH nicer place to live, mainly from being able to afford a nice neighborhood to live in.
Rating: 
Summary: Had high hopes for it, but it was a thorough disappointment
Review: I do not like Epstein's Rome and I resent having to share my Rome with him. After reading it, I was left with a strong feeling of dislike for the author's viewpoint. Stale and predictable emotions and unsympathetically told. The anecdotes were labored and the language patronizing in the extreme. Thanks anyway, Alan, but I prefer my Rome to yours and I hope our paths never cross. Good luck with the guiding business - there are certainly fellow New Yorkers who'll need your spurious "insights" into Italian culture.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty pedestrian effort
Review: I found this book very disappointing - trite, cliched "insights" into Rome and the Romans. Also, it was quite repetitive, in the manner of the self-help books he writes. He also has that self-help authorial style in that he believes all his observations have the force of revelation. The only good point is that he didn't seem as condescending to "the Italians" as Frances Mayes. Like another reviewer here, I had many questions that were left unanswered. I wanted to know more about his sons' experience; what language did they converse in day to day at home. Was Italian becoming their first language? Did they feel more Italian than American? I'm donating this book to my local library.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating, Sexy, Intelligent Prose: As the Romans Do
Review: I have already read and re-read As the Romans Do and I was completely engaged in every one of the 31 passionate vignettes that captures so vividly daily life in Rome. In fact, I saw last Sundays Travel section of the Philadelphia Inquirer with a large photo of As the Romans Do and the travel editor said it perfectly, "Whether discoursing on the excellent cuisine or the historical foundations of the predoninant habits and niceties of civil intercourse, Epstein captures the heady atmosphere of Rome so completely as to make this book essential for anyone who would understand the city before heading there." And even if you aren't headed to Rome I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys excellent travel writing and new light on the American way of seeing the world.
Rating:
Summary: Explains the Unexplainable, but Has a Side Effect
Review: I love Rome, yet when people have asked me exactly what it is I love about it, I've never been able to explain adequately. I'd come up with answers like, "I don't know, it has a certain pace of its own", or, "It's sort of a combination of New York City and Havana", or, "The food..." Well, Alan Epstein expresses the reasons beautifully. Unfortunately, the book has a side effect- if you've been to Rome, it makes you want to return-NOW, and if you've not yet been to Rome, it makes you want go- NOW. Oh, also- the chapters about food will make you hungry.
Rating:
Summary: Enough already!
Review: I quickly got absorbed in the first half or so of this book. The author's delight in his adopted city is contagious, and apart from falling into the occasional cliche and tendency to name-drop, he's an engaging writer. But eventually it cloys. Please, let's hear something--anything--to indicate that Rome is not paradise, because no place is paradise. The absence of a single negative note gets to be monotonous and annoying--and suspect. (You get the feeling that his publisher gave him his marching orders, instructing him to offer kudos and nothing but. Or else that Epstein lives in a fantasy, averting his eyes from anything unpleasant.) By the second half of this book I couldn't shake off the sense that if it were the Roman habit to toss the household garbage out the front window, Epstein's response would be "How charming! What insouciance! Such a devil-may-care approach to life!" I hope in his next book, if there is one, he exhibits a little more candor.
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