Much time in the last week spent tweaking this blog to look the way I want it. Too much time, in fact (and probably too much tweaking). Plus a lot of image work for other projects. But I'm continuing to plan the Rome highlights. It's a big city! I've worked my way around the centre – the centro storico – and have now reached the area south-east of the centre which the Rough Guide loosely calls 'Ancient Rome'.
I'm using The Rough Guide to Italy as my basic source of information. I settled on Rough Guides in preparing for the original Grand Tour, when I used the guides to Austria, Germany, Poland and Prague. The other good source is the Lonely Planet series; early on I spent some time in a bookshop comparing books from both publishers, for one or two of my Grand Tour destinations, and decided that I preferred the Rough Guide's presentation style. There's probably not much difference in the information overall, but I do believe that it's important to stick with one series, particularly (as on the Grand Tour) when a trip needs more than one guide: you get used to the layout and the writing style. In my quick bookshop comparison, RG did seem to be slightly better than LP for musical attractions, though it's not brilliant. It is very detailed, however, about art and specific attractions to look out for in galleries.
My planning process mainly involves trying to assess from the guide which buildings or churches or galleries I want to visit; whether I want to go in or just see and photograph the outside; and which highlights are must-see and which would be good to see. Then noting them down in a kind of shorthand, with opening times and days, entry fees, and often particular things to look out for. Given that I won't have time to see everything, I have to be selective – I don't want to 'waste' time on places that might be very important but are not of particular interest to me, or might be better on a later visit to the city. For example on the first Grand Tour I deliberately avoided the wonderful art galleries in Vienna, but have been back since on an art-focused visit.
The idea is to take as much information from the Rough Guide as possible – on no more than one sheet of paper (printed small!) per destination – without actually taking the Rough Guide. I try to get nearby places close to each other in the notes, and to build up some sort of plan in my mind of possible or sensible routes though the city, just to see if the whole thing is possible. Though of course everything is changeable according to what I find when I get there, what the weather is like, and so on.
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