Good yet annoying in audio form

A really good book in print, I’m sure, made into a marginal audiobook… it had great content but was not an entirely relaxing listen. It’s too bad, because I thought it was a clever approach to history.

First, as chapters are numbered but not titled, and the audiobook description does not even list the 12 buildings, here they are, for future listeners:
1. Preface
2. Introduction
3. Via Sacra
4. Mamertine Prison
5. The Temple of Caesar
6. Ara Pacis
7. The Mausoleum of Augustus
8. The Colosseum
9. Piazza Navona
10. The Pantheon
11. The Baths of Caracalla
12. The Walls of Aurelian
13. Scala Santa
14. The Column of Phocas

Second, be aware that this is a narrated version of a print book, not a properly produced audiobook.

After each building is described, each chapter moves onto travel information, such as directions and places to eat. If you don’t want to listen to addresses, phone numbers and websites being read out (yes, it does that!), and skip ahead to the next chapter, you risk missing valuable information: chapters end with adjacent little known historic sites (and they’re really good).

What would make this a true (better) audiobook would be to put the travel details in an accompanying PDF (and perhaps even enhanced with pictures, maps, etc). In other words, while it’s ok to say “Roma Pizzeria next door is good”, it takes away from otherwise good content to narrate address/phone details.

I really wanted to love this book, but in the end it’s a little like the love/hate relationship I experienced when visiting Rome: so much to love but senseless obstructions everywhere you turn. That realization helped me put up with the annoyances and I kept listening.

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