Understanding Rome

06/09/2026

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

01/09/2026

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! ❤️💛

31/08/2026

Earlier this month I was in glorious Siena, where the she-wolf was appropriated in a rather wonderful medieval fanfic spinoff of Rome’s origin story. My latest newsletter is about that, because one is never far from Rome!
UnderstandingRome.substack.com, or link in my stories

28/08/2026

We went in search of a Roman bridge which once carried the Via Salaria (and now is part of the Via Francigena) and while wondering which way to go were led by a personable and panting psychopomp, who was also a Very Good Boy.

27/08/2026

Somehow, inexplicably, I had never been to Ascoli Piceno. I can report it is lovely, and has quite the most exquisite Crivelli altarpiece. It was painted for the Cathedral of Sant’Emidio in 1473 and didn’t leave the building until 1943 when it was taken to the Rocca di Sassocorvaro for safe-keeping during the Second World War.
The extraordinary project during the war to save Italian works of art was carried out with great bravery by (among others) museum directors across the country and was the subject of an excellent exhibition in Rome in 2023 called Arte Liberata. Here’s a newsletter I wrote about it at the time (no paywall)
https://understandingrome.substack.com/p/arte-liberata-1937-1947-masterpieces

22/08/2026

My Mediterranean peregrinations continued to the Aegean, like Aeneas but backwards. Many many dips; scrambling over rocks to explore caves; sunsets and shooting stars; and the bawdily erudite delights of Lysistrata at the immeasurably fabulous setting of the ancient theatre of Epidaurus

15/08/2026

Frittata di maccheroni and a somnolent Ionian beach. Buon Ferragosto a tutti!

13/08/2026

Yesterday evening’s eclipse sunset over the Tyrrhrenian was just glorious!

02/08/2026

The newly opened “Syriac” Sanctuary on the Janiculum this morning (sound on for literal crickets, well, cicadas) more about it in August’s free monthly newsletter next week (understandingrome.substack.com to subscribe); not even tumbleweed to be found on via Marmorata, excellent news for fans of parking spaces. Strong Caro Diario/Pranzo di Ferragosto vibes. August Sundays in Rome are quite the Sundayest Sundays

31/07/2026

A new post has gone out to subscribers. It's about light, grace, and extraordinary ordinariness

At present there is an exquisite Vermeer on display in Rome, on loan from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and gleaming in the quietly atmospheric gloom of the Room of Landscapes just off the Oval Hall at Palazzo Barberini.