RS podcasts

OK - the Rick Steves podcasts are OUTSTANDING!!!!! I downloaded them for the trip and really didn't have high expectations about them. We used it for the first time in St. Peter's and it was fantastic. Very easy to follow and extremely informative. Later that same day, we went to the Vatican Museums and our tour guide didn't show up. We used the recorded tour instead and found it hard to hear, hard to wear and difficult to follow. We were sorry we didn't just rely on RS for that part also. In Florence, we used RS for the Accademia and in Venice we had some great tours with Rick along the Grand Canal and into the Accademia Museum. For the money (they're free!!!), this was an outstanding find on our trip that I highly recommend to everyone. If you're using one podcast for two people, I recommend buying a splitter for your iPod - we didn't have one and it made for some interesting navigation through the crowds!

My husband and I used Rick's podcasts, too, and they are fantastic! We used them for the Pantheon, Colosseum and the Roman Forum which we came to believe are essential to making those three sights an enriched experience. Rick makes these ancient ruins come alive with fascinating details and perfect humor. We also used the podcast for the Sistine Chapel which I'm sure would have been equally great except that it was soooo mobbed we couldn't think, listen, look or learn. And it was very dark - seemed like there were no lights to see -and proctors scolding everyone in loud voices to "BE QUIET". Too bad, really.

We downloaded the free podcasts to one iPod, bought a splitter and two headsets and wandered around the sights listening together. It was great!

Highly recommended!

We also used nearly all of Rick's audio tours earlier this summer, and they really enriched our trip. His audio tours are really informative, but they are also injected with lots of humor which we really enjoyed. And, the humor really helped keep our kids (teenagers) engaged.

During our Italy trip this past July, we listened to nearly all of Rick's audio tours -- there were only 2 or 3 that we DIDN'T happen to use. (That's a lot of listening to Rick's voice, LOL). We found nearly all of them to be worthwhile. My only nitpick with any of them might be with the "Grand Canal Cruise" audio tour in Venice. Rick tries to time the length of each segment to coincide with the vaporetto stops, but it didn't work very well for me -- our vaporetto moved a lot faster than Rick spoke.

The audio tours don't take up much room on an MP3 player, so you may as well grab the entire set. And be sure to bring along printed copies of the downloadable maps that accompany each tour. My wife and I each had our own iPods with copies of the same audio tours, which was helpful.