Peak Rome

Glimpses of a week packed with tours in Rome (which really doesn’t have to be busy). Never the same route twice

Delighted to have a piece in November’s @apollo-magazine.com In print or online here: apollo-magazine.com/palazzo-farn...

One of my favourite columns on the Palatine this morning, here’s a post about the time I went to where it came from (no paywall) open.substack.com/pub/understa...

October's monthly postcard from Rome. Well, Urbino.

WHAT YOU FAIL TO SEE MR POPE

Presently leading a delightful band of folk on a Piero della Francesca themed study trip. Yesterday we meandered across the mountains to Urbino to admire the palace of Federico da Montefeltro “of glorious memory”. The first time I went I was twenty and it was quite the odyssey

Presently leading a delightful band of folk on a Piero della Francesca themed study trip. Yesterday we meandered across the mountains to Urbino to admire the palace of Federico da Montefeltro “of glorious memory”. The first time I went I was twenty and it was quite the odyssey

I took a train in Umbria today and it trundled all the way to 1986

That magical moment when the pumice is gently cleared away revealing, for the first time in nearly 2000 years, a white mosaic. #MosaicMonday #Pompeii

155 years ago today Rome fell from papal control and became the capital of the new Italian Kingdom (No paywall) understandingrome.substack.com/p/20-septemb...

155 years ago today Rome fell from papal control and became the capital of the new Italian Kingdom (No paywall) understandingrome.substack.com/p/20-septemb...

(21) The Devil's Chair, or the tomb of (perhaps) Hadrian's freedman understandingrome.substack.com/p/the-devils...

Some super floors in and around Rome on last week’s tours

You know you’re living in strange times when Last Night of the Proms feels like the least jingoistic thing happening in Britain at the moment.

September's (free) Postcard from Rome: a beach day at the tail end of summer, and a rediscovered Mantegna lost for five centuries and rediscovered lurking in Pompei

September's (free) Postcard from Rome: a beach day at the tail end of summer, and a rediscovered Mantegna lost for five centuries and rediscovered lurking in Pompei

New post has been sent to subscribers, it’s the first part of an itinerary through relentlessly evocative Ostia Antica which is just the best place for exploring ever ❤️💚

This courtyard in Ferrara reminded me of St Jerome in his Study, by the inestimable Antonello da Messina

“I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day…” Crossing the tidal Thames on a bus yesterday reminded me of the Heart of Darkness, & a trio of Empires. Post now liberated from its paywall: understandingrome.substack.com/p/never-far-...

“I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day…” Crossing the tidal Thames on a bus yesterday reminded me of the Heart of Darkness, & a trio of Empires. Post now liberated from its paywall: understandingrome.substack.com/p/never-far-...

Sunday 31st August is surely one of the Sundayest Sundays of them all. This was the coast near Rome earlier today, more or less where Aeneas washed up. Probably.

Villa Borghese on a (very gentle) trot this morning 💙💚💙

Caravaggio's influential "Judith Beheading Holofernes," borrowed from the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica in Rome, will be on view at the Kimbell in Fort Worth, September 14, 2025–January 11, 2026

This courtyard in Ferrara reminded me of St Jerome in his Study, by the inestimable Antonello da Messina

New post has been sent to subscribers, it’s the first part of an itinerary through relentlessly evocative Ostia Antica which is just the best place for exploring ever ❤️💚

Honouring all the young tesserae that didn’t grow up to be a mosaic. A reused amphora housing thousands of loose white tesserae in the House of the Thiasus, #Pompeii. #MosaicMonday

Cape Misenum, named for Aeneas’ trumpeter drowned for his hubris by Triton. It was once home to the most important base of the Imperial Fleet. The western Mediterranean was once controlled from here, and from here sailors were despatched to Rome to man the awning of the Colosseum #neverfarfromrome

Cape Misenum, named for Aeneas’ trumpeter drowned for his hubris by Triton. It was once home to the most important base of the Imperial Fleet. The western Mediterranean was once controlled from here, and from here sailors were despatched to Rome to man the awning of the Colosseum #neverfarfromrome

Me and an unfinished column at the quarry of Cottanello “marble” on a delightful jaunt this morning. I wrote about it the last time I went, and the extraordinary columns in Rome which came from here. Lots of pictures, no paywall. understandingrome.substack.com/p/stones-of-...

Me and an unfinished column at the quarry of Cottanello “marble” on a delightful jaunt this morning. I wrote about it the last time I went, and the extraordinary columns in Rome which came from here. Lots of pictures, no paywall. understandingrome.substack.com/p/stones-of-...

Briefly back in Rome and my evening walk looked like this, which is honestly pretty fab

A few days with Florentine pals at Forte dei Marmi: where the beach clubs are timelessly smart, a slightly knackered bicycle is the chicest mode of transport, and the mountains are made of marble

Buon Ferragosto, here’s what it’s all about (frittata di maccheroni fundamental element)

August traffic in Rome. Not pictured: three million percent humidity (approx)

reverse heist movie where a single snake has to chase all the priests back into ireland

As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day...

August's (free) monthly newsletter is out. Grotteschi and Grande Torino, after all one is never far from Rome! understandingrome.substack.com/p/augusts-mo...

Date idea Calcedonio Reina, Amore e Morte, or Two Lovers before the Desiccated Corpses of Monks in the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, 1881. Oil on canvas, 119 x 149 cm, signed on bottom left- Cal(cedo)nio Reina (Catania, Museo Civico Castello Ursino) 💀❤️

August's (free) monthly newsletter is out. Grotteschi and Grande Torino, after all one is never far from Rome! understandingrome.substack.com/p/augusts-mo...

“Una strada, un’amico, un bar”Memory, melancholy, and optimism; James Joyce and Romina Power, and the multiple iterations of self. My latest newsletter is my most personal understandingrome.substack.com/p/vespa-tune...

This morning’s tour included a visit to the church with the barmiest chandeliers in town. High camp hiding off possibly my favourite street. Paywall removed! understandingrome.substack.com/p/some-of-my...

“Una strada, un’amico, un bar”Memory, melancholy, and optimism; James Joyce and Romina Power, and the multiple iterations of self. My latest newsletter is my most personal understandingrome.substack.com/p/vespa-tune...

My latest newsletter has been sent to subscribers understandingrome.substack.com/p/the-best-p...

I happened to be in Venice for this in 2005 and it was spectacular; they build a bridge of boats between two islands too

At midnight Venice will usher in the Feast of the Holy Redeemer, Il Redentore. Last year pals invited me to join them to watch the fireworks from a gondola and it was quite simply one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Lots of photos, no paywall understandingrome.substack.com/p/plague-and...

(8) A Podcast about Rome. Episode 26: The Baths of Caracalla understandingrome.substack.com/p/a-podcast-...

I was explaining to my Ukrainian colleague the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’. She told me the equivalent in Ukrainian is ‘The only free cheese is in the mousetrap’ - which is so much better