Route 66 Ad : On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists - Softcover

Tony Perrottet

3.82

508 ratings by Goodreads

9780091888060: Route 66 Ad : On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0091888069 ISBN 13: 9780091888060

Publisher: Ebury & Vermilion, 2003

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Brilliant Australian travel writer Tony Perrottet traces the Mediterranean itinerary of the world's first tourists - the ancient Romans - with the help of an archaic guidebook from the era. Tony's entertaining narrative is combined with a witty, intelligent discussion of ancient history and culture compared with our own lives today. There are more similarities that you might imagine. Tony, facing imminent fatherhood, is keen for one last wild holiday, but as this pursuit frequently leads him into trouble, the level-headedness of his pregnant girlfriend keeps on saving the day. They make their journey from Rome, through Greece, Turkey and finally to Aswan, Egypt. Along the way they scuba dive among the ancient ruins of Naples, meet isolated and frustrated monks (not just sexually) and Tony faces the protocol of whether to dance with the groom at a Nubian wedding. Route 66AD is informative, irreverent fun and the perfect holiday read.

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From the Back Cover:

"A wonderful, off-beat, illuminating book written by a wonderful, off-beat, illuminating author, Route 66 A.D. chronicles the original road trip, the ur-journey that sprung a Pandora's box of Kerouacs and wood-panelled cross-country station wagons. A great read!"
-Michael Paterniti, author of Driving Mr. Albert

"Where else does the past come alive with such play and wit as in this splendidly original book? Just enter this volume and enjoy Tony Perrottet's Grand Tour of antiquity."
-Nancy Milford, author of Savage Beauty and Zelda

"Roll over, Homer. Here's the ancient world as we've never seen it before: through the eyes of the original Roman sightseers, as related by a besieged travel writer. Learned, hilarious, hair-raising--and with the best last line since Joyce's Ulysses."
-John Colapinto, author of As Nature Made Him

"Who would've believed that today's camera-toting, fannypacked hordes could be blamed on the ancient Romans? Route 66 A.D. regales the reader on every page with wonderfully quirky insights about the world's earliest tourists. Perrottet succeeds where most fail--namely, in writing about travel and history in a way that's witty, smart, and fun."
-Jason Wilson, series editor of The Best American Travel Writing

"Smart, funny, evocative, and beguilingly unassuming. Tony Perrottet pulls us deep into a fascinating ancient world--and back out again--in an inventive travel book quite unlike any other."-Christiane Bird, author of Neither East Nor West

"A hugely entertaining, remarkably informative romp through the Mediterranean past and present. Tony Perrottet redeems a part of the world that I'd always written off as being too glutted with tourists to be of interest. Now I know the truth: It's always been glutted with tourists, and that is one of the reasons it's so interesting. Compulsive reading!"
-Lawrence Millman, author of An Evening Among Headhunters and Last Places

From the Inside Flap:

Romans were responsible for many remarkable achievements―Roman numerals, straight roads―but one of their lesser-known contributions was the creation of the tourist industry. The first society in history to enjoy safe and easy travel, Romans embarked in droves on the original Grand Tour, traveling from the lost city of Troy to the top of the Acropolis in Athens, from the fallen Colossus at Rhodes to the Pyramids of Egypt, ending with the obligatory Nile cruise to the very edge of the Empire. And as travel writer Tony Per-rottet discovers, the popularity of this route has only increased with time.
Perrottet first discovered the origins of this ancient itinerary when he came across the world’s oldest surviving guidebook in the New York Public Library. Intrigued by the possibility of re-creating the tour, and wanting to seize the opportunity for one last excursion with Les, his pregnant girlfriend, before their lives changed forever, Perrottet set off to rediscover life as an ancie

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