A Roman July always has a particular torpor – melting asphalt and lavic cobbles exude the heat of the midday sun; riding my Vespa, blissful at eight in the morning, is like being in a hairdryer by three – but this year it feels particularly enervating. Even by Roman standards this is a long hot summer, which began with anomalous temperatures in early May and hasn’t let up. Our apartment not only has no air conditioning, but also has not so much as a fan. Presumably if we’d really felt the need we’d have got one by now, so I think there’s a certain amount of intransigent purism in this curious choice which I’ve always observed with the detachment of a note-taking anthropologist, rather as if it had nothing to do with me. I could just buy a fan, I suppose. But I don’t think I will. As I write it’s nine in the evening and a languid breeze is guttering over the terrace, and that’s the joyous reward for the climate control purist.
Hi Agnes, we were introduced to the Clivio Scauro area many years by an old Italian teacher if ours who moved back to Testaccio about 15 yrs ago after 25 years in Sydney, and try to visit there whenever we’re in Rome. The mind boggles at the enormous size of the base of the temple to Claudius? It must have been huge. Also loved the ancient circular church S Stefano Rotondo(?) inspite of the gory wall mosaics.
In one of the openings up (between the shuttings down,) I made the mistake of an August visit because I wanted to be at the Festa of San Lorenzo, I shall never do that again (glad I did though.)
GeP almost out-chandeliers the Basilica of the Ara Coeli yet it's such a dark church.
The Clivo di Scauro is Mark's favorite street too! I am in awe of your non climate controlled existence.
Hi Agnes, we were introduced to the Clivio Scauro area many years by an old Italian teacher if ours who moved back to Testaccio about 15 yrs ago after 25 years in Sydney, and try to visit there whenever we’re in Rome. The mind boggles at the enormous size of the base of the temple to Claudius? It must have been huge. Also loved the ancient circular church S Stefano Rotondo(?) inspite of the gory wall mosaics.
yes, Santo Stefano Rotondo is a glorious church!
Our plan exactly - early starts & afternoon ‘pausa’ 😀
Thank you, Agnes, for teaching me the word "cosmatesque," a new one for me. Gonna try to work that one into as many conversations as possible.
Lovely essay, and I hope you have a freezer with ice in it.
a small one, but yes! And ice lollies!
All that and no air conditioner, not even a fan - truly Spartan, Agnes.
In one of the openings up (between the shuttings down,) I made the mistake of an August visit because I wanted to be at the Festa of San Lorenzo, I shall never do that again (glad I did though.)
GeP almost out-chandeliers the Basilica of the Ara Coeli yet it's such a dark church.