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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, 2025
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Agnes Crawford
41
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Rome wasn't built in a day: the extraordinary new Colosseum-Fori Imperial Metro station
As the saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, and indeed it wasn’t.
Jan 20
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Agnes Crawford
37
12
1
From Troy to Tomb Raiders: The Extraordinary Life of the Euphronios Krater
In the quiet town of Cerveteri, forty minutes drive or so north-west of Rome where I like to take people for Etruscan-themed jaunts taking in ancient…
Jun 23, 2025
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Agnes Crawford
39
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3
"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, 2025
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Agnes Crawford
35
3
1
A Quarter of a Century in Rome
Twenty-five years ago today, on the last Saturday of the first month of a shiny new millennium, I moved to Italy for perhaps six months.
Jan 29, 2025
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Agnes Crawford
118
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Caravaggio in Syracuse: the Burial of St Lucy, 1608
I spent quite a lot of last year thinking about Caravaggio, and took folk around the major exhibition at Palazzo Barberini on several occasions.
Jan 29
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Agnes Crawford
34
2
1
Soave Mestizia: Sweet Melancholy and the "ideal" Medieval cloister
All photographs taken at the complex of the Santi Quattro Coronati, unless otherwise specified
Feb 4
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Agnes Crawford
35
16
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Caravaggio 2025 at Palazzo Barberini: Part II
In my last post, I left the blockbuster Caravaggio show at Palazzo Barberini in the second room with a pair of portraits of Maffeo Barberini—the earlier…
Apr 13, 2025
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Agnes Crawford
30
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Some of my favourite views of Rome
6. Santa Maria in Aracoeli
Jan 25, 2025
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Agnes Crawford
32
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1
Mithras and Mithraism: San Clemente, Ostia Antica, and London
A languid stone’s throw from the Colosseum, under both the twelfth century church of San Clemente and the fourth century basilica which lies beneath…
Oct 19, 2025
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Agnes Crawford
28
12
3
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, 2025
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Agnes Crawford
29
3
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, 2025
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Agnes Crawford
29
6
1
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