Rome Encounter

This postcard-sized guide is an easy and intuitive manual to navigating, surviving and seeing the best of Rome. It gets bonus points for the pull-out map tucked inside the back cover – all guide books should have one – and if you're on the trail of Rome's cultural treasures, then this is a very good starting point. The guide seems to be mainly aimed at the young couple on a city break (can we call them city-breakers?) or backpackers – you can tell this from the distressingly trendy way in which the guide is written, where every run-down area is 'edgy' and the alliterative overkill makes some passages sound more like a music journalist's excitable eulogies on pop culture (so we have Saint Peter the 'A-list apostle' and Caravaggio the 'exiled bad boy'). However, the prose is sharp, witty and to-the-point. It also packs in a hell of a lot of information in its 232 A6-sized pages.

The bulk of the guide is divided into chapters on each of the main neighbourhoods of the city – 13 in all. These colour-coded sections are a master stroke because they summarise in about 10 pages all the sights in one walking-distance area, together with the nearby places to eat and drink, plus a one-page map of the area. I have several vivid memories of tramping around on a gruelling tourist schedule, only to emerge tired, hot and hungry from the afternoon of churches, ruins and galleries to find that I have no idea where to get a half-decent snack. For users of this guide at least, the expensive and disappointing stale sandwiches from roadside kiosks should be a thing of the past.

The editors at Lonely Planet and author Cristian Bonetto have also made an effort to add in snippets of modern Roman culture wherever possible. There are several snappy interviews with the people of Rome, whether it's a chef at the city's swish restaurant Imago, a local artist or an art restoration expert. These characters give plenty of local insight and flavour with their tips for their 'perfect day in Rome', whether that includes a fashion designer's shopping haunts or an archaeology professor's itinerary for a classical tour of the city (hints: don't miss the Appian Way, Ostia Antica or the frescoes in the restored villas on the Palatine Hill).

You are also kept up-to-date with modern culture and news with coloured boxes containing 'nibs' (news in briefs) of local knowledge – for example an insight into the pilgrims' knee-bruising journey up the steps of Scala Sancta (p.120 – but who spat their chewing gum out on the ancient staircase?), the mysterious inscriptions on the stone doorway in via del Boschetto (p.98), or Rome's tiniest art gallery (p.150).

For those who don't know Rome at all there are the basics on accommodation – but without the pages of hotel reviews. Instead readers are directed to the Lonely Planet's online hotel reviews and booking page. This makes an awful lot of sense when you remember that hotels usually need to be booked before you arrive in the city – so this small guide is less bulky for your days out sight-seeing.

All in all this guide gives an excellent potted introduction to just about everything that is exciting in Rome, and rather than simply listing sites and museums, it gives practical suggestions on, for example, the 'five best classical sites', the best sites for children or the best site for 'subterranean surprises'. It is much like a very detailed and tailored signpost that will point you to the areas that will interest you most, freeing you to then go off and explore the city for yourself.