[.uk] City of the Soul: A Walk in Rome (Crown Journeys) (ISBN 060960614X)

Rome is eternal - (this rating is supposed to be 4 stars, not 1):
City of the Soul - I certainly have to concur with author Murray that Rome is a unique and wonderful place. This little book is a gentle pleasure to read. Not much new here, but there are some interesting factoids and it's nice to read of this man's personal attachment to a place that I also love. He's a good writer with the soul of an opera singer, which he originally wanted to become, and has a genuine talent for describing some of the very special locations that exist only in the eternal city.

Unpleasant book; grouchy author?:
Rome is my favorite city on earth, but Mr Murray is in a bad mood all the way through his book -- a bad mood he holds against wonderful Rome. He sounds like a returning vacationer who can remember only the miseries of the trip and relates each and every one of them to all he meets, forgetting the beauty and pleasure of the journey. Rome is surely not perfect, and in its imperfections lie its joy and humanity -- at least that is what I have found in my visits there over the past 30 years. On our last trip, we took a tiny apartment overlooking a lively piazza providing a never-ending parade of Roman life, a cafe-circled plaza hosting a vegetable and clothing market in the day and a gathering spot for strollers, musicians and jugglers in the evenings. Mr Murray's take on that same piazza? That it is annoying, loud, scruffy, blah blah. I agree with another reviewer here that some of the book is out of date, but the gloomy attitude pervading the entire work is its worst flaw. A better book is H.V. Morton's "A Traveller in Rome", written in the 1950s, but still an accurately charming and evocative love song for a great city and its ever-present history. Sorry, Mr Murray. Attitude adjustment time.

Pictures would have made it 5 stars!:
Pictures about Rome are missing from this wonderful treasure of a book by prolific author, William Murray. He was half-Italian on his mother's side. Her family was from Rome, Italy with family ties still there. His maternal aunts and grandmother are interred in Rome. He has titled the book "City of the Soul" with good reason because it really is wonderfully rich city of life,vibrancy, history, and romance. He goes into personal details about his heterosexual romances with women and his adventures in Rome. Torn between his love of Rome and being an American too, he visits regularly and writes about walking the streets of Rome, past, present, and future. Rome has changed over the years. No longer is it the city where everybody remembers the famed Roman Empire, Rome is the capital of the Catholic Church empire now. Roman history is past. Today's history in Rome is still as fascinating. Rome is still trying to find itself in a world where Rome is a capital but one of many like Paris, Berlin, New York, London. In our world today, Rome is a major city and tourist attraction for Catholic pilgrims, Italianphiles, tourists, artists, etc. who come to marble at the architecture, shop at the finest fashions from Milan, see the cathedrals, stop at the majestic fountains, etc. Of course, it would have been nice to see pictures. It would make those of us who haven't been to Rome understand the desire more and more to see. Words say so much but pictures are so much better.

Murray's Rome:
This is an excellent, first-hand overview of Rome by an author who knew the city as a place to be lived in as well as to be visited. Without glossing over Rome's problems (which are not negligible), he presents a sympathetic and exciting portrait of the city from ground-level. This is an excellent source of information about what to see and what to look for. It is not a detailed guidebook, but there are enough of those around already. Reading Murray's book will whet the appetite of any prospective visitor.

It should have been better.:
I enjoy reading books about Rome and its history, architecture, art and religious foundations. I appreciate constructive criticism and historical honesty in a book. This book, however, was disappointing in its repetitive and gratuitous criticism of most of the religious (Christian) aspects of Rome. In most instances the criticism was unneccessary for the story. I was left with the feeling that the author had an axe to grind. In fact "City Without a Soul" would have been a better title. The author's superfluous chapter describing his "love affair" with a married woman was baffling. I have no idea how those materials got past the editors.