Monday, January 30, 2012

Listen to Rick Sleves' Audio Tours of Italy

By Barbra Sundquist


When I was planning my first trip to Italy, my friend suggested that I go to Rick Steves' site and download some free Italy audio tours of the major sights in Venice, Florence and Rome.These free Italy audio tours are recorded versions of the highlights from the Rick Steves guide books.

Designed to give you a private walking tour, they really work! They are so descriptive that it pays to listen in advance. They are nice blend of history, architecture and regular life.

And what cities are covered with these tours? At this point, Venice, Florence and Rome are the cities that Rick Steves has visited and recorded tours for.

Rick's Venice Audio Tours feature the Grand Canal Cruise, St. Mark's Square, St. Mark's Basilica, and Frari Church. The Florence Audio Tours take you on a tour of the Renaissance Walk, Accademia and Michelangelo's David, and Uffizi Gallery. The Rome Audio Tours are particularly good and include the Colosseum, Roman Forum, St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Trastevere Walk, Jewish Ghetto Walk, Ostia Antica, and Pompeii.

There are a variety of ways to access these audio tours. I downloaded them onto my iPod Touch directly from the RickSteves.com website. You can also download them from any podcast service (such as iTunes) or use the Rick Steves Audio Europe app. The app is perhaps the easiest and best experience if you have an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android.

Simply subscribe to Rick Steves' Rome Audio Tours on iTunes, Amazon or the equivalent Android store if you prefer podcasts.

You don't have to own an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android device, at all. Your mp3 player will do the trick also. Just download the mp3 files RickSteves.com and transfer to any mp3 player, or play them on your computer.

There are two disadvantages to listening to the audio tours on your mp3 player as opposed to a device like an iPhone. First, you won't see the pictures. But frankly, you won't be missing much because the audio tours actually don't include many pictures; they just have the occasional still photo to illustrate the audio. The second disadvantage is that the chapter breaks and subheadings may not show up. But other than, it will work just fine.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment