Understanding Rome

Three tiny glimpses of a splendid day of Neapolitan exploration with the most delightfully enthusiastic folk: a private visit to the extraordinary Ipogeo dei Cristallini (thanks Bellini Travel for introducing me to Alessandra many moons ago!); crocodiles and hippos at the inestimably fabulous Museo Archeologico di Napoli; peekaboo Caravaggio. Boundless examples of human experience, so incredibly dense with beauty!

Chanced upon Luna Rossa beating New Zealand in the preliminary regate of the America’s Cup

A view over the deserted Forum yesterday afternoon. The Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine remain closed today and Friday in mourning after a horrific and unnecessary incident in which a 22 year old skilled rope worker and mountaineer from Abruzzo, Andrea Moretti, fell to his death while working on new lighting at the Colosseum on Tuesday night. So incredibly sad. Italy’s alarmingly high rate of workplace deaths is rarely the stuff of social media.

A tour of the Vatican Museums at the break of dawn this morning with a charming and enthusiastic group from John Cabot University organized by Mountain Butorac (& featuring JR ‘s wave installation in the last photo). Many thanks as ever for asking me!

“Les lumières de l’Empire”, so to speak

My free monthly newsletter is about a tiny, joyous ritual and the loss of a Sicilian time machine sitting on top of part of the Baths of Diocletian

September’s Monthly Postcard from Rome The first two weeks of September have flown by in a flurry of tours and Rome’s rientro is complete, the somnolent shuttered streets of August already a distant memory.

Round(ish) things from the last week of tours: I spy Santa Cecilia in Trastevere; Cavallini’s Angel Gabriel in the choir loft at Santa Cecilia; Corb’s Modular Man; optimal roundness; a globe at the Biblioteca Angelica; another of this week’s Pantheon visits; dolphin eye; San Clemente; “Cosmati” floor at San Benedetto in Piscinula; Bernini’s staircase off the Benediction Loggia of Santa Maria Maggiore

Just a few glimpses of a fabulous week of tours: Pomegranates and baths at Ostia Antica; tombs a go go, a Cyclopean wall, and the ghosts of Phoenician ships on an Etruscan jaunt; a big oval building, I forget the name; papal palaces; mosaics and angels; the Passetto del Borgo; nervous new recruits on their first day in the barracks of the Swiss Guard; I still have this thing about floors

A magical spot of Venice in Rome, and a view over twenty-seven centuries, with delightful Bellini Travel folk (& a glass of rather good champagne). It’s a tough job…

Normal service has been resumed! Three glimpses from today’s tours with two different sets of delightful folk. 10 km, 3 showers, 2 shirts, many temples, several churches, a panoply of fountains, the Colosseum (once), and more extraordinary views than I could ever photograph. Roma quanto sei bella! ❤️💛