Understanding Rome

The Mausoleum of Costanza looked like this earlier today. It is, in my opinion, one of the very finest buildings in Rome. Mosaics gleaming in the gloaming on the very cusp of Christian Rome; atmospheric motes of dust playing in the sunlight; beyond the heavy door the muffled sound of excitable children playing football on the parish pitch on the first day of the school holidays. What’s not to love?

Just a few glimpses from today’s tour (which is, if I say so myself, a very good tour): Delights of Subiaco, an excellent luncheon among limestone mountains, plus a foray to see quite the finest Nilotic mosaic on the way home, all laid on just for us. It is, as they say, a tough job…

Details of exquisitely timeless tenderness, almost overwhelming in their humanity, at the excellent Giotto show

Quiet corners and views of the glorious palimpsest of the Theatre of Marcellus from this morning’s tour from the Campidoglio to the Colosseum