Product Description

“One lifetime is not enough for Rome,” the famous saying goes, and anyone who’s ever been there knows these words to be true. In City of the Soul, William Murray begins to show us why.

Growing up in Rome and spending much of his life in the city, William Murray is an expert guide as he takes us on an intimate walking tour of some of Rome’s most glorious achievements, illuminating the history and the mythology that define the city. Murray leads us through the centro, the city’s historic downtown center. He writes about the Villa Borghese, the Piazza di Spagna, and the Trevi Fountain and describes such singular attractions as the Capuchin Church of Santa Maria della Concezione, whose macabre crypt has impressed visitors from Mark Twain to the Marquis de Sade.

As he walks, he reveals stories that only a longtime resident would know, capturing the sights, sounds, and flavors that make Rome a combination of the deep past and the ever-sensual present.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #597037 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-04
• Released on: 2003-02-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"Rome is so many things, but most of all, perhaps, a city of ghosts, of memories, of visions, of time remembered and faithfully honored," writes Murray (Janet, My Mother and Me) in this highly evocative, largely personal guide to the Italian capital, the latest addition to the Crown Journeys series. Having spent much of his childhood and early adulthood in Rome, Murray has many ghosts, memories and visions to exhume. Thankfully for readers, he keeps the reminiscing to a minimum and fits up a straightforward and well-researched but still romantic-and even, at times, funny-portrait of the city and its people. "Rome is nothing if not a feast for the eyes," Murray muses, and his descriptions of the city's many churches, ruins, fountains and piazzas display his quirky assessments: the Palazzo Venezia reminds him of "an old-fashioned typewriter," the Piazza Navona is "God's waiting room" and the Coliseum boasts a "great yawning fa‡ade staring out... to testify to the city's imperial past." Murray doesn't hesitate to share negative depictions, either: the Campo dei Fiori, "not one of Rome's prettier scenes," is "hemmed in by the burnt-orange and amber-colored houses around it, and an air of doom seems to hang over it, even at noon on crowded market days." Like a nice walk, Murray's work is leisurely yet not too long, inspiring daydreams of zooming around town on a Vespa in an espresso-induced state of ecstasy. Map not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The New Yorker staff writer tours the town where he was raised.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Writer William Murray, thoroughly American but Italian born and sometimes bred, takes the listener on a walk through Rome, giving a guide and history, and occasionally a memoir of his own life or a remembrance of his accomplished family. Urbane and civilized in the fullest senses, he meanders but is never lost; his know-ledge of the city and its history are both deep and at his fingertips. This is guidebook enough that at times we wish for a map, but it's more a love letter than a Frommer's. Murray's voice is scratchily old but not unpleasant; his patent love of Rome gives the book a dimension a different reader could not provide. W.M. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

A delightful walk through Rome.
J.Tom Cooper (gktemugen@aol.com), book reviewer for a radio network., May 5, 2004,
A wonderful banquet of Roman anecdotes
I reviewed the 2-CD version of this book for my radio network and found it delightful. I have been to Rome many times, but Mr. Murray's delightful blend of personal and family anecdotes merged perfectly with his description of some famous and some less famous parts of the city. His pleasant vocal narration and his obvious thorough knowledge of the city kept me interested through the entire book on CD. I found myself taking notes on each piazza or building he described so that I could go back and experience them again. It isn't your typical guidebook description, but it is a perfect companion to a conventional book on Rome. His personal anecdotes about his family, lovers and friends were a welcome bit of spice. I recommend it highly.

Not Much Soul Here
Before you read on, perhaps you should know where I'm coming from: I've spent a great deal of time in Rome and Sicily every year since 1994. William Murray's little book about Rome is part of Crown's Journeys series. It's worth perhaps a quick hour's read by someone who has never been to or read anything about Rome; i.e., if you know absolutely nothing about the Vestal Virgins, you'll find a very brief but informative paragraph about them. Tourists will not find the book helpful. Although the book has a 2003 imprint, there are many indications that the chapters are reprints. For example, Murray wrongfully says that the Villa Borghese is not open to the public, whereas it has been open to the public for more than a year; and he refers to the Holy Year as "looming," whereas it has long since ended. There is some anti-American sentiment: Murray suggests that if Rome had been turned over to American engineers, they would have demolished the forums and the Colosseum; yet he flatly contradicts himself with an anecdote about an American millionaire who wanted to buy and restore the Colosseum. (In actuality, anyone who has been to Rome can tell you that the Italians need no help in allowing the degradation of their monuments.) A quotation from William Wetmore Story does not identify Story, not even to indicate that he is one of the more notable permanent residents of the Protestant cemetery in Rome. While he tells us that Janet Flanner was his mother's dearest friend and lover, you'll have to go elsewhere to learn anything about Flanner's place in literary history. Beyond that reference to Flanner, Murray's family reminiscences are quaintly meandering and do little to reveal Rome as a city of the soul.

A Walking Tour of Rome for Romantics
I finished this book wanting to read more - about Rome and about William Murray and his family. Shortly after finishing City of the Soul, we went to Rome and enjoyed many of the walks he described. Not only that, the maps on the end pages are excellent, and the small size of the book makes it an ideal book to take along.

Murrays' mother was Italian and he grew up in Rome, although he was just at home among Americans and British. In between descriptions of walks in central Rome and the history of the landmarks, he talks about growing up with his journalist mother and her lover. Murray's Rome is populated with artists and writers and this is both a great walking tour as well as a revealing journey to post-war Rome.