Understanding Rome

18/10/2026

Arches a go go (to paraphrase Childe Harold): Santa Francesca Romana; Ponte Fabricio; Portico d’Ottavia. Not pictured some rather skillful (if I do say so myself) half-marathon dodging this morning, well done to everyone who ran!!

15/10/2026

Vehemently filterless, absurdly beautiful. The ancient Argiletum looks like this today

15/10/2026

Many thanks to the charming folk British Embassy Rome for inviting me for tea and allowing me to gently swoon over their splendid chunk of the Neronian aqueduct in October light (which is the best light)

13/10/2026

Glorious October light from today and yesterday’s tours: pine triumphal arch and lengthening shadows from the Palatine; a blue blue sky (Fascists really love a good bum); tombs on the way to the Villa of the Mysteries, and a Pompeiian cat (to appease the algorithm) 🐈

12/10/2026

On the day Cristoforo Colombo is said to have arrived in the “New World” Piero della Francesco died in his home town of Borgo Sansepolcro. It is home to the painting Aldous Huxley described as “the best picture in the world” in an essay that saved it from Allied bombing. This is about that.

In 1925 Aldous Huxley wrote an essay called “The Greatest Picture” in his book Along the Road, Notes and Essays of a Tourist. It begins:

11/10/2026

Just a few glimpses from the last week of tours: bathtubs and bridges and Baroque delights (at Santa Maria dell’Orto); the inestimable charms of (probably) Antoniazzo Romano (here at Sant’Antonio dei Portughesi); Trajan’s tabernae and (excellent) trees under perpetually mutable skies; bling at Palazzo Doria Pamphilj and in Holbein’s Henry at Palazzo Barberini.(Rome really doesn’t have to be busy)

09/10/2026

One of my favourite scenes from one of my favourite Roman movies features in my latest (free) monthly missive. Fellini and St Francis on the way to the cinema. UnderstandingRome.substack.com or link in my stories

07/10/2026

A holm oak and an aqueduct, suffused by the gentle ethereality of October light. These are a few of my favourite things.

02/10/2026

The Bay of Naples Grand Tour concluded in style with a day at Pompeii: chiaroscuro; putti riding crabs; gilded elephants; fabulous floors and water features a go go! And joined us for lunch for a spot of serious Pompeiian archeology chat!

01/10/2026

Yesterday the Bay of Naples jaunting in splendid company continued with snorkeling over glorious mosaics and the remains of the once vast base of the Roman fleet at Misenum (many thanks to the lovely knowledgeable folk Centro Sub Campi Flegrei ), and then to the extraordinary, deserted Villa Poppaea at Oplontis