Route 66 A. D. - On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists by Tony Perrottet
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 Perrottet 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.
This hardcover book is in very good condition with slights imperfections to the dust jacket. Pages in very good condition.
ISBN 10: 037550432X / ISBN 13: 9780375504327
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 2002
