Monthly Archives: July 2015

Me and Doctor Freud know what you’re up to with the position of that harpe, Benvenuto!      This sight of Medusa’s head makes the spectator stiff with terror, turns him to stone. Observe that we have here once again … Continue reading →

I went up to the English Cemetery on Piazzale Donatello this afternoon to look at the tombstone of Theodore Parker. It’s a bit of a misnomer, Cimitero Inglese, as it’s really a graveyard for Swiss Protestants. But it is the … Continue reading →

A Room with a View … and Voices I’ve arrived to the Istituto Gould, where I’m staying in Oltrarno. It is a Waldensian institution, that is, a pre-Reformation Protestant sect that was mercilessly treated by the Church, despite their piety … Continue reading →

Such a humid day, and the crush of the crowds in central Rome can be so overwhelming, but I made the long walk up to the northern Camp Marzio to see Augustus’ Ara Pacis in Richard Meier’s covering structure. Controversial … Continue reading →

Saturday was a day and a night for inventive combinations of ancient and modern in Rome. Everyone had been telling me that I should go to Centrale Montemartini, so I did and was glad to have done so; the former … Continue reading →

At a certain point in the day, although your feet and legs are sore from trolling around the tombs of the necropolis, you look into a room of a museum, “just to see.” Yes, you’re on your way to the … Continue reading →

Busy days in Trastevere! Arrived in time for the passagietta, and an open air screening of Grand Budapest Hotel in Piazza Cosimato, part of the local cinemal festival that’s been going on every night all summer. IN a few day’s … Continue reading →

After some pointless rearranging of seats, the minibus left more or less promptly at 10 am from Pompei to Vesuvius. “In twenty minutes it ascends 1000 metres,” says the brochure, and I believe it. Up the tortous, narrow, and busy … Continue reading →

Its been a long day in Naples, up to the Capodimonte museum, to see some incredible works of art– although the air conditioning was out! So, a museum full of masterpieces in 90 degree heat. Some amazing pieces though, including … Continue reading →