Nicely written, approachable essays about Rome through an American's eyes.
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Written by an American who loves Rome and the Romans. I doubt I will ever walk the streets of Rome, but I feel as if I have gained an understanding of a people in another part of the world. I enjoyed this book. ( )

Joyce and Keats slept here.

Ok this is another book read between coughing bouts. One carelessly picked from the bedside stack of bargain books gathering dustbunnies. Wasn't something I intended to read just now, but it was within easy reach. My teen daughter said she'd never read it because it had that hideous bright orange cover. It must have been that ole subconscious talking to me again because I really needed a shot of vitamin C the orange cover appealed. Whether it's the cough syrup or medicine I'm having right now or whether this book deserves 4 stars, it did the trick and got me through the night. Like I said it's a veritable feast. There's food on every page. Or caffe. Epstein & family move from the USA to Rome to satisfy a 20 year dream and he does convince you as to why he loves the place.

1. the food.
2. the coffee.
3. the climate.
4. the history.
5. the people.
6. the community.
7. the beautiful women.
8. the beautiful young men.
9. the art.
and at 10. the food yet again.

If you removed all the references to food, coffee and the drinking it would be a slim quick read. However it's not just a book for foodies. Epstein tries to explain why Rome is like no other place. That the 1-10 above all blend in harmony and have been doing so for thousands of years in a way of life that is sadly and quickly changing with the global economy. The book is based on his life there since 1997 but was published in 2000, so is now 11yrs old. Things have more than likely modernised and morphed more since then. I'd never thought of wanting to visit Rome before, Tuscany maybe but not actually
Rome and now I do despite other things I have heard that didn't appeal. Epstein makes Rome seem like a village community where everyone knows everyone (eventually) and looks out for each other, something that is lacking in most modern western cities. The rituals of food play a huge part in the book, and like Epstein says the Italians say, food is the way to the heart and it keeps the community together. I think it is true. Look at what fast food outlets have done to our society.

On the other hand the book is light on politics and history and art, he tries more than anything to give a family oriented view of living in Rome and in that it succeeds. I would have liked more history with the food, but I did learn two things that I didn't know. James Joyce lived there for a while with his wife and son in 1904 and worked in a bank. One of the houses he rented opposite the spanish stairs,still stands with plaque with his name / boasting Joyce dreamed the story of Ulysses there..(I researched this and discovered Joyce hated the place and couldn't wait to leave - But he did enjoy the non-stop drinking so Rome may well have been the inspiration for "The Dead".) Keats died in Rome and the house he died in carries a plaque to that effect and is a mecca for Keats devotes. I didn't know this and was shocked to learn he died of TB that was wrongly diagnosed. In the middle of the night coughing as I was this seemed even more shocking. Fellini's house in Rome is immortalised with a plaque too and that is fitting as for me Fellini captures the essence of la dolce vita.

The one thing missing is the receipe of Epstein's favourite dish. It would be hard I guess he has so many.

I'd really like to follow Epstein's book with
The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves
by Andrew Potter
"a shallow consumerist society built on stratification and one-upmanship that ultimately erodes genuine relationships and true community" - Potter. Wish the library were open now, I'd like to read this following directly on from "As the Romans Do" by Alan Epstein which I've just read. The consumer society and lack of community is why Epstein left America and moved to Rome. Epstein posited that Rome was still operating on values the west had done away with.

bargain = 1 of 29 books for $5. ( )

I was disappointed in this book (which I picked up in the Rome airport) because based on the cover I expected a memoir, and ended up with a series of essays. Some of the author's writing is insightful, but sometimes he misses the mark and occasionally he's egregiously misinformed (for instance when writing about the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Catholic Church, he manages to make several really bad factual errors, which could have been easily avoided with a modicum of research, in a single paragraph). I wondered whether it was the author's fault that the book (bought in 2011) often seemed so dated, or whether the publisher is at fault for republishing it - but surely he must have known, writing in 1999, that the lira's days were numbered (could it be, I wonder, that if he had actually done some research he might have discovered that there was a reason that it was hard to get change in 1999, other than the Italians' lovable indolence and their banks' inscrutable incompetence? were physical lire in short supply as banks waited for the Euro?) and most of all, he must have known that multiple references to Y2K concerns were going to be Boring Old News as soon as the calendar ticked over to 2000. All in all, although it had something to offer and was more interesting than at least one of the three in-flight movies, I didn't find the book extremely entertaining or particularly informative. ( )

Beautifully written by one who so obviously loves Rome. Many aspects reminded me of my time living in Florence, as some of the idiosyncrasies of Rome and Romans apply to Italians as a whole. I found myself rereading parts or reading it very slowly because of the poetic writing...even stopping at times to praise Epstein for writing with such care about this place I so love too. I know I am being a bit gooey about it, but I even loved the smell of my book copy and felt such a desire to hug it after finishing. ( )