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September's Postcard from Rome
In this second week of September cloudy skies and storms are trying, not entirely successfully, to sweep away the heat of summer leaving the air heavy…
Sep 10
•
Agnes Crawford
21
4
A Podcast about Rome: Episode 27. The Sarcophagus of Sextus Varius Marcellus, and the Roses of Heliogabalus
Cruel, extravagant, sexually omnivorous, and gender fluid: the brief reign of the emperor Elagabalus has given rise to many a colourful tale.
Sep 2
•
Agnes Crawford
8
18:11
August 2025
A Wander through Ostia Antica, part 1
From the via Ostiense to the Theatre
Aug 26
•
Agnes Crawford
38
8
Admin and Aqueducts; or Tor Sapienza, pensavo peggio
I’m a big fan of turning tiresome admin into a jaunt, and in Rome it’s really not hard: amazing things lurk in the unlikeliest places.
Aug 17
•
Agnes Crawford
29
6
Vespa Tunes XXV: Un Estate Italiana, Gianna Nannini & Edoardo Bennato, 1989
A visit this week to the super Burri Collection in the former tobacco drying sheds outside his home town of Città di Castello reminded me of the first…
Aug 10
•
Agnes Crawford
29
3
August's Postcard from (not quite) Rome
I love the slightly sticky languid torpor of August in Italy.
Aug 7
•
Agnes Crawford
46
4
July 2025
Roma Città Aperta, and the Mausoleum of the Fosse Ardeatine
Last month I saw Rossellini’s extraordinary film Roma Città Aperta on the big screen in Piazza San Cosimato on the occasion of its eightieth…
Jul 31
•
Agnes Crawford
21
4
Vespa Tunes XXIV: Nostalgia Canaglia, Romina Power & Al Bano, 1986
Twenty-five years ago I moved into a flat-share on via della Pelliccia in Trastevere.
Jul 26
•
Agnes Crawford
41
6
"The Best Picture in the World": one of my favourite paintings, and the serendipitous tale of how it survived the Second World War
In 1925 Aldous Huxley wrote an essay called “The Greatest Picture” in his book Along the Road, Notes and Essays of a Tourist. It begins:
Jul 21
•
Agnes Crawford
33
3
A Podcast about Rome. Episode 26: The Baths of Caracalla
Imposing beyond imagining, and bewilderingly almost always deserted, the Baths of Caracalla are among my very favourite places to take people to…
Jul 16
•
Agnes Crawford
13
2
14:31
July's Monthly Newsletter
I have a fond recollection of returning from a day at the beach on Massimo’s scooter many, many moons ago (Google tells me it was September 2007) to see…
Jul 5
•
Agnes Crawford
21
3
The Terror of the End of Days
Beato Angelico and Luca Signorelli at the Chapel of San Brizio at Orvieto Cathedral
Jul 1
•
Agnes Crawford
15
8
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