Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists

This is the best travel book I've read in a long, long time. Mr. Perrottet seamlessly joins together information about ancient Roman tourists with amusing, wry commentary on his current-day efforts to follow in their footsteps. The book is entertaining as well as educational. I've read the other reviews of this book that are posted at this webpage and they are very good.....so I hesitated about putting in my "two cents". However, I enjoyed the book so much that in the end I felt I had to write something! What can I add to what has been said already? Well, one of the many interesting parts of the book is when Tony and his girlfriend Lesley make their way to the misty and mystical mountains of Arcadia, in Greece. They visit a monastery, and Tony has a philosophical conversation with Brother Yianni, a young English speaking monk. To quote from the book: "He (Yianni) peered at me significantly. 'I wearied of so much searching. Moving about the world like....a ghost. The Chinese philosophers say: When you are restless, stand still; when you are at peace, then move.' 'I know the theory.' I flinched, a little suspicious that this was a prepared spiel to convert wayward travelers. 'Personally, I'm quite a fan of senseless movement. I find it therapeutic.' Brother Yianni smiled indulgently. 'One who travels is running away from something. As much as any drunkard.' There was something appealingly surreal about debating the value of travel with a monk in the mountains of Arcadia. It's an age-old argument, and one that certainly went on among ancient Romans. At the birth of cultural tourism, there was no shortage of world wanderers who, after their journeys, discovered that they had found no inner contentment or wisdom." But in the space of a few pages the author can go from sobering philosophical discussion to the following description as he and Lesley "hit the beach" at Mykonos: "Super-Paradise (the name of the beach!) was certainly something to behold. Every inch of the rapidly eroding shoreline was covered with blue plastic chairs; on top of these were hundreds of bronzed nightclubbers trying to sleep off their hangovers. This must have been difficult, given the cacophonous activity in the water. There were water-skiers, hang gliders, and plastic bananas, all being dragged around by speedboats; Jet Skis roared, outboards whined. But more impressive, right behind the beach were six disco bars, each with its own DJ, each competing to blast techno rhythms into our sun-addled brains." It's not easy to combine the historical information with the contemporary travelogue, but Mr. Perrottet pulls it off quite well! It's really a tribute to his organizational skills and sheer writing ability. I'd love to read a novel by him! He has wonderful powers of observation and the ability to translate what he sees into prose that is, all at the same time, quirky, poignant and profound. If I had one regret after finishing this book, (beside the fact that I'd finished it!) it was that we didn't get to know more about Lesley. She walked countless miles alongside the author, endured hot and cold, rain and seasickness, and staying in some fleabag hotels. All while advancing through her pregnancy! Must be quite a lady.....

In the year 5 BC, the Roman Emperor Augustus was presented with a small oval map of the known world. A larger version was hung in the public colonnade. There the public could see the known world as it stretched from Spain to Britain to India to Arabia to Northern Africa. For its time the map itself was a feat. A team of Roman scientists had poured over the charts of surveyors sent to every corner of the Empire. The map inspired the first tourist industry in the world. The Grand Tour of Antiquity started in Rome, of course, wound through the Greek Isles and Asia Minor, and then sailed up the Nile to Aswan.Tony Perrottet calls this the "Route 66" of Antiquity and aptly calls the first edition of his book by that name. Inspired by the map, Perrottet decides to make the same trip. This book is a combination of what it was like to travel in Antiquity and what it is like to travel the same route today. Though separated in time by 2000 years, so much of travel is still the same. I cannot help but notice that Perrottet has written about the wilder, crazier, mis-adventurous side of traveling. His travels are like those currently portrayed on the Travel Channel. I cannot help but picture him with a sly grin on his face as he tells the stories of his travels. After this one should read Lionel Casson's _Travel in the Ancient World_ (which Perrottet depends upon quite a bit) just for comparison.

The author is incredibly well suited to write on the life in ancient Rome. Anyone intrested in life during the first two centuries AD should find it interesting.

An interesting read. Mr. Perrottet's commentary of he and his very pregnant wife as they followed the route of ancient tourists through the eastern Mediterranean. He uses the commentaries of ancient travel guides and fleshes out their experiences and inconveniences with he and his very pregnant wife's experiences and inconveniences. I read it to the end and I was entertained.

If you have any interest in Classical history (especially the more human, socio-economic and religious aspects) and/or enjoy tongue-in-cheek travel writing by authors such as Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods) and Tony Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic), then pick up Tony Perrotet's illuminating and hillarious look at tourism, ancient and modern. At just under fifteen dollars, this book provides entertainment and erudition without the need for mortgaging the home on airfare, Mediterranean tourist trap hotels, Russian made rent-a-car deathtraps or dodging terrorists at the Valley of the Kings. Pagan Holiday is a a great summer escape!

This book is a lot of fun. It is half history and half travelogue. I recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys either category.

I love all of his stuff. I read one and start looking for the next one. Would be nice to run into him at the New York Public Library next time I'm in New York. Would just love to meet him. His books make life "back then" so truly real. The ancients were a whole lot worse than people today, or were they!?! Watching the news these days, one wonders.

I am almost finished and enjoying it. A lot of people were saying that it was hilarious, hysterically funny and such - I'm not finding it that funny but very amusing and such good insight into ancient travelers and how we're really not that much different, just smaller luggage and easier to get around now. They travel through some of my favourite areas so that was good enough to keep my interest.

This book is a definite 4.5 - 5 stars.Its entertaining and a recommended read for anyone interested in the Mediterranean countries and early Roman travellers.I don't think you'll be disappointed. The writer makes the journey interesting and its quite a catchy read.

Another good perrotet book