What a great way to enhance your trip

books:


	• Rick Steves' Europe 101: History and Art for the Traveler (Rick Steves) Rick Steves, Gene Openshaw Avalon Travel Publishing, 2007 - 525 pages average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great book

A must have whether or not your travel to Europe. If you do indeed go, read it before and during your trip. Other books are available; however, this one works really well and covers a wide swath or history - and thus interests.

What a great way to enhance your trip

I last visited Europe 25 years ago on our honeymoon trip as a fresh graduate from art school. I have just returned from a month long trip to Europe with my family and while on the trip read Europe 101. The book completely enhanced the trip for me by providing the cultural and historical background for the art I was seeing. Yes - it covers several millennia of art and history in 500 pages, yes it is a survey but it is the best overview and survey I have read.

RS is very open in the book that this is an opinion piece and that it is NOT a scholarly work. However, it does a great job bringing to life and placing into a meaningful context what you are seeing. I often think that travellers (myself included) have a limited appreciation of what they see because it is viewed as old or older with no real connection to the history and culture of the times.

Highly recommended, fun to read, and take his modern opinions with a grain of salt and enjoy and learn.

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Excellent resource

If you plan to travel Europe this book is a must have, especially if you are interested in history and the museums. It gives tips on how to get tickets without standing in long lines and other tidbits a tourist would not know. I found it to be very time saving and helpful. It definitely will increase my enjoyment while I'm on vacation.

Beautiful Book

I thought that I would receive this book a little sooner than I did. It did arrive within the shipping time, but it was a Christmas gift for someone and I didn't receive it until the 29th. In any case, the book is absolutely gorgeous. The pages are glossy, it is well constructed and from what I briefly read and saw, quite informative and well organized. It also was a good price for what you get. Thanks!

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A non-european eye on Europe

As being European myself, I expected from this book an independent eye and a reorganizing mind to describe European history and art. I was not deceived. A real overview with the right accents on 525 pages. I especially liked the timelines about each historical period, and the organization of monuments attached to art historical periods. Humour is also present: like hard rock and heavy metal to indicate stone and metal ages of prehistory.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Now in full-color comes a witty and engaging look at Europe's history and art, from America's European travel guru. Rick Steves' Europe 101 helps you make the most of your sightseeing. A fun but informative guide, this "professor in your pocket" features chronologically organized chapters?from the pyramids to Picasso?that explain the forces behind Europe's most important cultural and artistic periods. Other features include handy lists of sights that allow you to link your newly acquired knowledge with the specific paintings, sculptures, and buildings you'll see on your trip, a humorous, readable style that is a joy to read compared with the history textbooks you slept on in school, and timelines, maps, drawings, and photos that illustrate Europe's story and round out your education.

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