Route 66 A.D. : On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists
by Tony Perrottet
List Price:
Our Price: $6.48
You Save: $19.47 (75%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.08 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Tony PerrottetEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-04-23
ISBN: 037550432X
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Random House
Book Reviews of Route 66 A.D. : On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists
Book Review: He Came, He Saw, She Concurred....
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best travel book I've read in a long, long time. Mr. Perrottet seamlessly joins together information about ancient Roman tourists with amusing, wry commentary on his current-day efforts to follow in their footsteps. The book is entertaining as well as educational. I've read the other reviews of this book that are posted at this webpage and they are very good.....so I hesitated about putting in my "two cents". However, I enjoyed the book so much that in the end I felt I had to write something! What can I add to what has been said already? Well, one of the many interesting parts of the book is when Tony and his girlfriend Lesley make their way to the misty and mystical mountains of Arcadia, in Greece. They visit a monastery, and Tony has a philosophical conversation with Brother Yianni, a young English speaking monk. To quote from the book: "He (Yianni) peered at me significantly. 'I wearied of so much searching. Moving about the world like....a ghost. The Chinese philosophers say: When you are restless, stand still; when you are at peace, then move.' 'I know the theory.' I flinched, a little suspicious that this was a prepared spiel to convert wayward travelers. 'Personally, I'm quite a fan of senseless movement. I find it therapeutic.' Brother Yianni smiled indulgently. 'One who travels is running away from something. As much as any drunkard.' There was something appealingly surreal about debating the value of travel with a monk in the mountains of Arcadia. It's an age-old argument, and one that certainly went on among ancient Romans. At the birth of cultural tourism, there was no shortage of world wanderers who, after their journeys, discovered that they had found no inner contentment or wisdom." But in the space of a few pages the author can go from sobering philosophical discussion to the following description as he and Lesley "hit the beach" at Mykonos: "Super-Paradise (the name of the beach!) was certainly something to behold. Every inch of the rapidly eroding shoreline was covered with blue plastic chairs; on top of these were hundreds of bronzed nightclubbers trying to sleep off their hangovers. This must have been difficult, given the cacophonous activity in the water. There were water-skiers, hang gliders, and plastic bananas, all being dragged around by speedboats; Jet Skis roared, outboards whined. But more impressive, right behind the beach were six disco bars, each with its own DJ, each competing to blast techno rhythms into our sun-addled brains." It's not easy to combine the historical information with the contemporary travelogue, but Mr. Perrottet pulls it off quite well! It's really a tribute to his organizational skills and sheer writing ability. I'd love to read a novel by him! He has wonderful powers of observation and the ability to translate what he sees into prose that is, all at the same time, quirky, poignant and profound. If I had one regret after finishing this book, (beside the fact that I'd finished it!) it was that we didn't get to know more about Lesley. She walked countless miles alongside the author, endured hot and cold, rain and seasickness, and staying in some fleabag hotels. All while advancing through her pregnancy! Must be quite a lady.....
Summary of Route 66 A.D. : On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists
The ancient Romans were responsible for many remarkable achievements?Roman numerals, straight roads?but one of their lesser-known contributions was the creation of the tourist industry. The first society in history to enjoy safe and easy travel, Romans embarked in droves on the original Grand Tour, traveling from the lost city of Troy to the top of the Acropolis in Athens, from the fallen Colossus at Rhodes to the Pyramids of Egypt, ending with the obligatory Nile cruise to the very edge of the Empire. And as travel writer Tony Per-rottet discovers, the popularity of this route has only increased with time.Perrottet first discovered the origins of this ancient itinerary when he came across the world?s oldest surviving guidebook in the New York Public Library. Intrigued by the possibility of re-creating the tour, and wanting to seize the opportunity for one last excursion with Les, his pregnant girlfriend, before their lives changed forever, Perrottet set off to rediscover life as an ancient Roman. He was armed for travel with only the essentials?a backpack full of ancient texts and a second-century highway map reproduced on a twenty-foot-long scroll. As he retraced the historic route, fighting the crowds and reading aloud to Les two-thousand-year-old descriptions of bad food, inadequate accommodations, and pushy tour guides, it became clear to him that tourism has actually changed very little since Caesar?s day.
A lively blend of fascinating historical anecdotes and hilarious personal encounters, interspersed with irreverent and often eerily prescient quotes from the ancients, Route 66 A.D. vividly recaptures the magic of the Roman Empire in all its complexity and wonder.
Greece Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Greece Books
The Oxford Illustrated History of Greece and the Hellenistic World (Oxford Illustrated Histories)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2001-05-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.00
Price in other shops:
Gorgias (The World's Classics)by Plato
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1994-12-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $141.34
Roman Lives: A Selection of Eight Lives (Oxford World's Classics)by Plutarch
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2000-01-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops:
Xerxes Invades Greece (Penguin Epics)by Herodotus
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-12-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Guide to Greece, Vol. 1: Central Greeceby Pausanias
Penguin Classics; Published: 1984-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops:
A History of My Times (Penguin Classics)by Xenophon
Penguin Group USA; Penguin Classics; Published: 1979-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.90
Price in other shops:
Lost and Found: Heinrich Schliemann and the Gold That Got Awayby Caroline Moorehead
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1997-07-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
The Portable Plato (Portable Library)by Plato
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1977-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Classics)by Suetonius
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-05-06; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.34
Price in other shops:
Wars of the Ancient Greeks (Smithsonian History of Warfare)by Victor Davis Hanson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-12-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Touristsby Tony Perrottet
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2003-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.77
Price in other shops:
The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Gamesby Tony Perrottet
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2004-06-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.45
Price in other shops:
Napoleon's Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzippedby Tony Perrottet
It Books; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.09
Price in other shops:
The Sinner's Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of Europeby Tony Perrottet
Broadway; Published: 2011-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.04
Price in other shops: