the cognoscentis’ rome

Guidebooks to the world’s great cities usually dwell on the obvious, but sophisticated travelers will appreciate a new series that launches this spring with “City Secrets Rome” (The Little Bookroom, $19.95). For starters, this insider’s guide to the Eternal City is petite and wrapped in a tasteful cloth cover that doesn’t scream “naive foreigner.” Inside, more than 200 artists (Frank Stella), writers (John Guare), scholars and restaurateurs reveal the hidden treasures many outsiders overlook. Architect Richard Meier divulges the city’s best piazza, director Nicholas Hytner describes an ideal Roman afternoon, and Princeton art historian R.J.W. Cro lists a shop, away from the maze of Vatican tourist traps, that caters to the clergy and where shoppers can buy the bright red socks that cardinals wear. Volumes are also due on New York, London and Paris.