Tailor-made private tours of Rome. Native Londoner, naturalised Roman.
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Fully licensed as a guide by the Province of Rome, I have 20 years' experience giving tours in and around Rome. Let me help you discover why Rome is one of the most enthralling and exciting cities in the world.
The thing about Rome is that when it’s hot and sticky, if you have a free afternoon, you can be at the beach in 40 minutes (with a diversion to pay homage to Aeneas, in my stories). Yesterday afternoon was all sturm und drang, today is hot and sunny with a gentle breeze.
Yesterday’s unprecedented storm caused damage to the Arch of Constantine in a lightning strike. An omen of which the Romans would have been extremely wary. Over an autumn month’s rainfall fell in an hour and there were extremely high winds. I was showing The Catholic Traveler ’s group around and we stayed safe and dry in the inestimably interesting church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin until it was over.
⚡Fulgur Conditum - il seppellimento del fulmine
Durante la tempesta improvvisa di ieri pomeriggio un fulmine ha colpito l'Arco di Costantino.
L’intervento di recupero effettuato dai nostri tecnici è stato tempestivo e i nostri funzionari sono arrivati sul posto immediatamente dopo la caduta della folgore.
Tutti i frammenti sono stati recuperati e posti in sicurezza.
Ci sembra importante sottolineare che proprio tre giorni fa era iniziato il cantiere di restauro del fronte Sud dell’Arco di Costantino: abbiamo unito quindi la manutenzione programmata (relativamente al restauro già pianificato) alla tutela d’emergenza prontamente eseguita.
Questo evento ci dà anche l'occasione per ricordare un particolare rituale di tradizione etrusca in uso presso i Romani: il fulgur conditum, il seppellimento del fulmine.
Dopo la caduta di una folgore al suolo, gli aruspici erano incaricati di eseguire un intervento purificatore sulla zona colpita per riparare i danni e ripulirla da contaminazioni.
Per questo recuperavano oggetti e materiali direttamente esposti alla saetta e li seppellivano in un'area appositamente delimitata, sulla quale era da quel momento impedito ogni passaggio poiché consacrata alla divinità che aveva lanciato il fulmine.
In particolare, secondo Plinio (Naturalis Historia II, 138), i fulmini diurni erano scagliati da Giove in persona mentre quelli notturni da Summano, un antico dio italico.
La zona era poi definitivamente sigillata da un'iscrizione recante la dicitura "fulgur conditum". La "sepoltura del fulmine", appunto.
museitaliani ⚡Ministero della Cultura
Patti Smith was absolutely spectacular yesterday evening, as was
What a fabulous setting, for a totally splendid show!
Some *difficult* weather on this afternoon’s tour, but an itinerary reworked on the hoof, and the very charming folk exploring Rome with this week, meant somehow we both saw a lot *and* didn’t get soaked! Here’s the looking fabulous as a reward for our patience.
The church of the greengrocers, the millers, and the pasta-makers. Also the Japanese national church in Rome since the late sixteenth century.
The makings of (probably) the best sandwich in the world: pizza bianca, jamón ibérico, little September figs
I was up and out before dawn this morning to take clients to the Vatican Museums before it opened to the public. We had it all, including the Sistine Chapel, entirely to ourselves and it was glorious.
Going on holiday is nice and all, but coming back to an evening stroll like this is one of the innumerable ❤️💛❤️
August’s last hurrah in deepest darkest Toscana
Earlier this month, on an impromptu whim, I took a slightly eccentric route from Rome to London, and arrived in England across the Channel once sailed across by Caesar and Aulus Plautius. My latest newsletter is about that. https://understandingrome.substack.com
Verticality
Acqueducts are also some of my very favourite things
Another day, another medieval cathedral. I find they are very good for the soul.
Carla Tomasi in her garden in November when, as ever, she sent me home with a crate of her delicious vegetables. An extraordinary cook, an incredible gardener, and a very kind friend. She will be very much missed by so many.
Chiaroscuro in the timeless and contemplative somnolence of a fine medieval cloister is one of my very favourite things
One of my very favourite views. Always worth a detour to walk over the bridge. What must the Romans have made of the mutability of the tidal Thames?
The filterless approach by sea to (sometimes) perfidious Albion. The way the Romans came and the first time for me since I was a child.
Somehow, inexplicably, I’d never been to Avignon. So I thought I should fix that.
Genoese
Spotting repurposed Roman columns of Egyptian granite is one of my most favourite things. And Genoa is my kind of town.
Last August's newsletter also came from Greece, and spoke of the origins of the term "dog days".
The dog days of summer are those days when Sirius, the Dog Star (so called for the way it follows Orion into the night sky), rises above the eastern horizon before sunrise and becomes the morning star.
The filterless saturation of August. Even the bougainvillea is looking dustily weary.
August's free monthly newsletter is out. Lots of photos, plus thoughts on hazy legend and volcanoes, and ancient sailors and their letters.
Over the last month I have taken deliciously refreshing and salty dips across the Mediterranean: in the Tyrrhenian, the Adriatic, and the Aegean Seas.
EUR and a bit of the Tiber. At the top is Pierluigi Nervi’s concrete dome at the Palazzo dello Sport, built for the 1960 Olympic Games, seen from the approach to Fiumicino earlier today. Ciao Roma! ❤️
A glorious and perpetual spring, three and a half thousand years old. From Akrotiri, Thira (modern Santorini).
I decided against joining the huge crowds waiting for the Acropolis to open at 8 this morning and instead walked up the shady slopes of the Pnyx for this atmospheric view, which I had all to myself.
Repurposed columns, shadowy candlelit corners, Byzantine paintings. All very much my bag.
http://www.understandingrome.com/, https://understandingrome.substack.com/
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After hours Vatican Museums: always a blast!
Another day, another presidential motorcade. This was Joe Biden arriving at the Quirinal yesterday evening. #G20
My favourite scene of Fellini’s movie Roma, one of the films which will feature in next week’s talk about Rome in films.
The Della Rovere Chapel, for some reason the quality is much better on my Instagram page, where I’m @understandingrome. If you don’t already I’d be delighted if you’d follow me there too!
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Fully qualified as a guide by the Metropolitan City of Rome, I have 18 years' experience giving tours in and around Rome. Let me help you discover why Rome is one of the most enthralling and exciting cities in the world.
