This is what Dante's Rome was like, Petrarch's Rome, and more importantly, Boniface the VIII's Rome. GREAT photographs. My students will be retracing the Pilgrim's steps.

What a good book to read before, during, and after you spend time in Rome!

This book of essays covers the WHOLE history of Italy from the early Empire to almost the present - perhaps a little too broadly.

This is the kind of thing a great scholar can do if he tries hard enough to write for people rather than for graduate students who have to read his work anyway.

GOSH this is a good book. My students in Rome enjoyed USING it, and there's almost no higher praise for a guide book. The series relies on good drawings of reconstructions rather than photographs.

This is from a good series of brief biographies - very helpful!

An essential book to read about the greatest building in the world. Really.

Everything Saylor has published in the "Roma sub rosa" series is good, but this book of shortstories is a handy thing to carry with you.

Steven Saylor is better at the Romans as people - Lindsey Davis is unparalleled at the CITY.

This is a nice guidebook series - I used their guide to London a few years ago and was pleased with their maps.

Any translation of Suetonius's 12 Caesars will do - new or used.

Any other translation - though watch for abridgements - will do. Lots of used copies are available!

A useful thing to take along!