On the third morning, I crossed the river before the heat. Rome was not awake yet, or not entirely. The shutters were still closed along the streets, and the light on the Tiber was pale, almost without colour. A few…
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Rome
Rome is not a city you see so much as one you step into. Almost three thousand years of it are stacked one layer on the next, a temple beneath a church beneath an apartment block, an emperor’s racetrack that…
Rome – The Long Way In
The train ran north out of Naples through the middle of the afternoon, and I watched the coast give way to hills, and the hills flatten into the long, golden plain that finally becomes Rome. I had just spent days…
Naples – The City That Lets You Stay
I woke in Naples before I meant to. The shutters were still open from the night before. I had left them that way on purpose, too greedy for the city to close it out, and so the morning came in…
Naples – The City That Arrives All at Once
Naples does not ease you in. I came in by train, and the city started before I had even left the platform. The carriage doors opened onto heat and noise and a river of people already moving, and I stepped…
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Naples
I arrived in Naples on a train so red it looked like a provocation. The Frecciarossa pulled into Napoli Centrale in the middle of the afternoon, and the city hit me the way it always hits people who don’t know…
