A closer look
If you ever felt bullied by a guidebook, you’ve probably read a Blue Guide. Emerging in the 1910s as the ultimate intellectual flex, these dense blue bricks stripped away all the fun, hedonistic parts of travel to focus aggressively on architectural floor plans and obscure Renaissance painters. They acted as a ruthless filtering mechanism; if you were holding a Blue Guide, you were silently telegraphing to the world that you were there to suffer through art history, not enjoy a decent plate of pasta.
