July's Monthly Newsletter
Cerco l'estate tutto l'anno
E all'improvviso eccola qua
Azzurro (about which I wrote this free post last year, including full lyrics in Italian and English) is the ultimate Italian summer song. This year it’s taken a little longer to get going but now it’s July and sweltering, and the skies are that simply impossibly blue blue. Despite the four-shower days I love it.
And yes, Rome is hot and busier than ever but, and I can’t emphasise this enough, it really doesn’t have to be. I firmly believe there are no bad times of year to visit, just bad ways of doing it. In high summer an early start, a post-prandial snooze in a darkened room, and evening wanders are the way to go.
Rome also has a seemingly infinite panoply of amazing places which in any normal place would be the most famous thing in town but which here you can have all to yourself. For example, on Wednesday I took pictures of the painted garden of the Empress Livia for this post which has lots of photos and information about these glorious frescoes. Two thousand years old, bewilderingly beautiful, and I was the only person there.
The same floor of the same museum houses the paintings found at Trastevere in the late nineteenth century during the building of the embankments of the Tiber. The villa in question is believed to have belonged to Augustus’ daughter and son-in-law and the paintings are just spectacular.
On Sunday morning I took folk to Santa Costanza (about which I wrote this) there to admire the mosaics and the exquisite architectural rhythms. Totally empty, refreshingly cool, and free.
Here are some more glimpses of tranquility over the last couple of weeks. Because Rome really doesn’t have to be busy at all.
Wow, Santa Costanza! On my list now... 🙂
Your photos are always so beautiful. These are some of my favourite places in Rome🥰
How did you manage to get so much light in Santa Costanza?!