I woke before the heat had settled over the city and went out to meet its oldest streets while they were still half asleep. Rome in the early morning feels like another place entirely. The shutters remained mostly closed, cafés…
The House Above Florence
I came to Florence the slow way, as I always seem to, and I came to a house rather than a hotel. My aunt takes a villa in the hills above the city most summers, an old place with faded…
The Sacred and the Ordinary: A Day Across Rome’s River
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…
