14 ביכער וואָס רופן אויף די וועג

The book of the philologist and translator Viktor Sonkin is not a typical guidebook. You will not look through it on the run or sitting in an airplane. But after all, Rome is not such a city as to endure «familiar» treatment in the form of a list of dry facts and a formal description of routes. It takes time to understand it properly. Or … a satellite like Viktor Sonkin. His book allows the reader to briefly become a historian, archaeologist, linguist and see behind the kaleidoscope of majestic buildings living history, the fate of generals, kings, poets and ordinary people. Sonkin’s book is devoid of both academic tediousness and bored intonations of advertising booklets. Thanks to this, she is endowed with something else — the title of the winner of the Enlightener-2013 award. (ACT, Corpus, 2015)

«The Word on the Road» Peter Vail

The book of the brilliant essayist, journalist Pyotr Vail appeared a year after his death and includes his essays from different years on travels around the world, culinary notes, fragments of interviews and chapters from the unfinished book «Pictures of Italy» about the great masters of Italian painting. An erudite, sharp-sighted and adventurous traveler, witty and benevolent interlocutor, Weil traveled around, settled (“domesticated”) and described many beautiful places, and as soon as you open the book, you feel an acute desire to quickly pack your suitcase and hit the road. In fact, the direction is not so important, because wherever you go, you will eventually meet with the unknown you, Weil argues: “Travel is not at all a search for the unknown. Traveling is a way of self-knowledge… After all, when you come to different places, you look not only at them, but also see yourself.” (Corpus, 2011)

“Especially Lombardy. Images of Italy XXI» Arkady Ippolitov

Exactly one hundred years after the publication of the famous «Images of Italy» by Pavel Muratov (this book is still on the must-read list for anyone interested in world culture), art critic and historian Arkady Ippolitov wrote a kind of continuation (replica from the 2012st century). The images of Ippolitov are not inferior in brightness to the descriptions of his predecessor (“Any baroque palace is a carcass of meat, luxuriously falling apart before your eyes”)… Any corner of Lombardy evokes in the author’s memory a lot of literary, historical, cinematic reminiscences and associations. Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Tarkovsky and Tolstoy, Pasolini and Fellini, the Crusades and Cremona fruits in mustard — the author’s impressions and curious stories are mixed into an intoxicating cocktail that allows you to enjoy traveling around Italy (and far beyond its borders) without leaving your home . (Hummingbird, Azbuka-Atticus, XNUMX)

Peter Ackroyd, writer, historian, culturologist, wrote several biographies of the great Londoners (Dickens, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Turner and others), and also undertook a large-scale study of the past and present of the city itself in the book “London. Biography ”(Publishing house Olga Morozova, 2007), which became a bestseller. But Ackroyd did not satisfy his interest in English life and turned his attention to the Thames. A journey along this sacred river for the British, from source to mouth, turns into a large-scale narrative about the history and culture of England. The Thames as a plot combines a lot of information of various kinds (here, economics, geography, religion, and mythology). But it is also a reflection on the river as such, a symbol of eternity and variability, a river that unites space and time and equally speaks of the past and the present. (Publishing house of Olga Morozova, 2009)

«Walks around Istanbul in search of Constantinople» Sergei Ivanov

To see medieval Constantinople in modern Istanbul, breathe life into it and guide tourists through it — this task turned out to be within the power of the brilliant storyteller and Byzantine scholar Sergei Ivanov. The author draws the daily life of the inhabitants of the city, recalls the terrible and joyful events captured in countless legends, lives and «walks» of travelers. And this virtual “walk” awakens the imagination no less than a real trip to Istanbul, although, of course, it does not cancel it at all. (ACT, Corpus, 2016)

“Paris from the inside out. How to Tame a Wayward City by Stephen Clark

British journalist Stephen Clark, who is in love with Paris, is ready to give readers a lot of valuable advice: how to behave in the subway, on the street, in cafes and restaurants, hotels and rented apartments, how best to ask a passerby a question in order to get a friendly answer, what French cuisine is worth tasting, which cinemas are best for watching premieres and which museums to go to if you don’t want to stand in line. In a small book, Clark manages to tell about everything: about the history of the city, about architecture, about rare corners where the tourist’s foot does not set foot, about Parisian sex and housing prices, about the kings of the fashion world and where to buy clothes … (Ripol Classic , 2013)

Andrei Bilzho is the author of «Petrovich», a cartoonist and «an employee of a small psychiatric hospital.» Few people know that the bronze Petrovich stands in one of the Venetian gardens, and the restaurateur Andrei Bilzho himself is a Venetian. Probably because the author of the book does not feel like a tourist in Venice, he did not write a guidebook. “Venice for tourists” is an absurd city, and “an employee of a small psychiatric hospital” captures all this absurdity, first asking the childish question “Where does the pigeon droppings go?”, And then explaining what “an ordinary Venetian flood” is. Each chapter bears the name of one of the “venetian catering points”, and the author introduces us in a homely way to the place, to the kitchen and to the owner, and even attaches biglietto di visita, the restaurant’s calling card. Bilzho addresses the book not to casual and hurried tourists, but to those who come to the city to live — even if not for long. (UFO, 2013)

“New York. Art Navigator »Morgan Falconer

Having opened this colorful guide, you clearly understand that a trip to New York is worth making if only to see the richest collections of masterpieces of world art, lovingly kept in the famous New York museums. And you should definitely take an art navigator with you. Firstly, thanks to its convenient format, it will not burden you on foot, and secondly, using its maps and directions, you will not go astray and find exactly what you are interested in, and, finally, in addition to valuable information, an art navigator will provide you with a brief overview of world art history. If you don’t plan to fly across the ocean anytime soon, you can take a virtual trip: after admiring the excellent illustrations in the book, visit the websites of New York museums and galleries (their addresses are conveniently grouped together), which contain the main pearls of the collections. (Sinbad, 2014)

«Middle East: far and wide» Semyon Pavlyuk

Continental Turkey, Syria, Iran — routes that for a free traveler with a backpack can seem disturbing and frightening. However, professional geographer Semyon Pavlyuk demonstrates from his own experience that the fear of an unfamiliar culture is compensated by unique impressions — both from real sights and from pictures of everyday life in the Middle East. You can spend the night there on the roof of a cheap hotel, and the driver of the ride will not only tell you about life, but also invite you home for a cup of tea. From Istanbul via Ankara, and across Iran (Qom, Isfahan, Shiraz): in this fascinating «travelogue» — the temptation for adventurers and the pleasure of empathy for homebodies. (Kitoni, 2009).

Travel notes by Alexander Genis are not just the art of table-talk brought to perfection, cooing about elegant wedding elephants in Delhi, the Spanish “time machine” — bullfighting, exotic fishing on a distant Canadian lake, Japanese subway and Hudson parrots. No. This is the philosophy of travel, travel as a state of mind, soul, body. Genis invariably accompanies all the noticed scenes and details with reflections that push the boundaries of the place just described to the scale of the Universe. And in the end, everything again comes down to a conversation about a person and about himself. Because travel is “an experience of self-discovery: a physical journey with spiritual consequences. By embedding himself in the landscape, the author changes it forever. Essays by Alexander Genis — a set of color postcards with landscapes forever changed by him. (UFO, 2011)

«Russian Literary Estate» Vladimir Novikov

Pushkin’s childhood and Turgenev’s youth passed there. Baratynsky realized his unexpected architectural abilities there. The best Russian writers wrote, walked, fished and met friends there. Philologist and writer Vladimir Novikov prepared a kind of guide to 26 «literary» estates: from Pushkin’s Mikhailovsky and Lermontov’s Tarkhan to Gumilyov’s Slepnev and Nabokov’s Rozhdestveno. In fact, we have before us a «literary excursion» — from the Golden Age to the Silver Age — with many textbook facts and non-textbook legends, with love stories and everyday anecdotes. These concise sketches will be of particular interest to fans of «weekend travel». After all, the estates of Russian writers are still the best routes for such trips. (Lomonosov, 2012)

“We traveled a lot…” Elena Lavrentieva

A hundred years ago, our compatriots went to rest in other countries with no less enthusiasm than we do today. Especially often traveled artists, artists, writers. Their diaries and letters, unique photographs, postcards and brochures fill this album with the air of the Swiss Alps, Asian bazaars and the French Riviera. And they are also full of curious everyday observations regarding fashion, service, cuisine and customs — both local residents and other visiting tourists: “Impressive in appearance and cheerful — Americans. I really liked them, but why did these gentlemen sit in the cabin so indecently, lifting their legs above their heads? Didn’t they ever have governesses?» (Eterna, 2011).

“Run, Forest, run,” the children of their 45-year-old father admonished with some irony, who decided to run around — not just America or Canada, the entire globe. Whether he was running away from work problems or planning to radically change his life — but the Canadian Jean Beliveau did it! Ran out of Montreal in August 2000 and returned… 11 years later. True, at some point he switched from running to walking, but this does not change the essence of the matter: a man alone, with a three-wheeled cart and a meager amount on his account, traveled all over the continents, and then described his journey in a very exciting book. And you know, today, when every traveler can board a plane and return home in a few hours, where it is safe, satisfying, comfortable, the choice of the Canadian Odyssey is of particular respect. (Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2016)

"שטאָקכאָלם. שפּאַס דזשאָורניי» אלעקסאנדער באַלאַשאָוו

Children’s game guide to the capital of Sweden will come in handy on a real trip, but it will also help you make a virtual trip to Stockholm. If, for example, you ride a bicycle along the city embankment with your dad, and then have a snack on a cinnamon bun and send a runic message to your mom (cipher is attached), you will feel like a real little Swede. By the way, Swedish children love to experiment like in the Tom Tit Museum of Experiments. You can organize a small volcano, bake gingerbread cookies, gather a Viking on a hike and find the royal palace: there are many tasks in the exciting guide to Stockholm. And parents will make a trip route along it. (Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2015)