Rick Gets Personal…with Free Italy Audio Tours
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| Would you rather stand here fumbling with a guidebook...or listen to David's inspiring story with uninterrupted eye contact? |
A good guidebook is a necessary foundation for any trip to Europe. Beyond that, for a long time I've also felt that the best way to make Europe's great art and history come to life is to hire a talented private tour guide for a day. But with our dollar in the dumps, that's becoming more of a luxury. So here's my solution: over the past couple of months I've recorded real-time audio walking tours of Italy's most popular sights. Now, liberated from having your nose buried in a guidebook, you can better experience and appreciate the wonders you've traveled so far to see. Imagine having me literally whispering in your ear as you walk up to Michelangelo's David, gaze at the Pietà, or wander through St. Mark's Square.
Building on the success of my four France Audio Tours (which had nearly 800,000 downloads last year), my new series of a dozen free Rick Steves' Italy Audio Tours for Rome, Florence and Venice — complete with downloadable PDF companion maps — are now available via iTunes and our audio tours web page.
These tours work best if you actually use them in Italy at the places being described! But you might also enjoy previewing them here, just for fun.
If you find these audio tours helpful in your travels, you can thank the technical expertise of Cedar House Audio and the editorial brilliance of my Europe 101: History & Art for the Traveler co-author, Gene Openshaw. And it's all made possible through generous support from our friends at American Airlines, who also underwrite my Rick Steves' Europe series on public television and Travel with Rick Steves on public radio. Happy listening, and happy travels!