It’s not quite caveat emptor but the idea is similar. Tourism is primarily—the primary?—source of…
The Eternal City 5: Architecture of Visions
In 2005, Jake Morrissey published a book called The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry that Transformed Rome. Haven’t read it? Do. It’s brief, fascinating, dense with information about the birth of the Baroque in Rome, and it makes you care...
The Eternal City 4: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men”
The Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-96) was commiserating with a tiny rodent whose world has been discombobulated by human activity in his poem To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough (1785) and left posterity with this wonderful verse that has...
The Eternal City 3: Casa Nostra in Trastevere
When in Rome, we say, live in Trastevere. It is the quiet place—except perhaps around the fountain in the Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere when the young folk are socializing or perhaps along via della Lungaretta, the blocks between busy viale di Trastevere and the...
The Eternal City 2: Turisti Stare Attenti
It’s not quite caveat emptor but the idea is similar. Tourism is primarily—the primary?—source of income in Rome. Spontaneity, a commendable trait, is likely to exacerbate that leak in your wallet. Rome seems just as problematic as when “Bear Leaders,” those...