There is always a level of delight on which Rome can be enjoyed—unashamedly, sensuously, openly. Is there a solution to the present difficulties and enigmas of Rome? If there is, I freely confess that I have no idea what it might be. So many centuries of history are wound inextricably into the city and confront the visitor, let alone the resident, with apparently insoluble problems of access and understanding. It wasn’t built in a day and can’t be understood in one, or a week, or a month or year—in however much time you may allot to it, a decade or a guided bus ride. It makes you feel small, and it is meant to. It also makes you feel big, because the nobler parts of it were raised by members of your own species. It shows you what you cannot imagine doing, which is one of the beginnings of wisdom. You have no choice but to go there in all humility, dodging the Vespas, admitting that only a few fragments of the city will disclose themselves to you at a time, and some never will. It is an irksome, frustrating, contradictory place, both spectacular and secretive. (What did you expect? Something easy and self-explanatory, like Disney World?) The Rome we have today is an enormous concretion of human glory and human error. It shows you that things were done once whose doings would be unimaginable today. Will there ever be another Piazza Navona? Don’t hold your breath. There is and can be only one Piazza Navona, and, fortunately, it is right in front of you, transected by the streams of glittering water—a gift to you and to the rest of the world from people who are dead and yet can never die. One such place, together with all the rest that are here, is surely enough.
Photo Insert
Sarcophagus of the Spouses, 6th century b.c.e.
Terra-cotta, 114 x 19 cm.
National Etruscan Museum, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.1)
Apollo of Veii, c. 550–20 b.c.e.
Terra-cotta, 174 cm.
Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.2)
Leochares
Apollo Belvedere, c. 350–25 b.c.e.
White marble, 224 cm.
Vatican Museums, Vatican City. (Photo Credit ill.3)
Apollonius
Boxer, 225 b.c.e.
Bronze, 128 cm.
Museo Nazionale, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.4)
Pasquin, 3rd century b.c.e.
Marble, 192 cm.
Piazza di Pasquino, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.5)
Augustus of Prima Porta, c. 15 c.e.
White marble, 205 cm.
Vatican Museums, Vatican City. (Photo Credit ill.6)
Villa dei Misteri friezes, 1st century.
Fresco.
Pompeii, Italy. (Photo Credit ill.7)
Roman Forum, the judicial and political center of imperial Rome, 1st century. (Photo Credit ill.9)
Temple of Fortuna Virilis, 75 b.c.e.
Rome. (Photo Credit ill.10)
Pyramid of Cestius, 12 b.c.e.
Rome. (Photo Credit ill.11)
Baths of Caracalla, 212–16 c.e.
Rome. (Photo Credit ill.12)
Pont du Gard, 1st century.
Gard River, southern France. (Photo Credit ill.13)
Plan of Santo Stefano Rotondo,
c. 468–83 c.e.
Rome. (Photo Credit ill.14)
Cola da Caprarola, Santa Maria della Consolazione, 1508.
Todi, Italy. (Photo Credit ill.15)
Apse of Santi Cosma e Damiano, 526–30 c.e.
Mosaic.
Rome. (Photo Credit ill.16)
San Clemente Basilica, 12th century. Mosaic.
Rome. (Photo Credit ill.17)
Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, 176 c.e.
Bronze, 350 cm.
The Campidoglio, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.18)
Raphael
The School of Athens, 1509–10.
Fresco, 500 x 770 cm.
Apostolic Palace, Vatican City. (Photo Credit ill.19)
Raphael
Portrait of a Young Woman
(also known as La fornarina), 1518–20.
Oil on wood, 85 x 60 cm.
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.20)
Raphael
The Triumph of Galatea, 1513.
Fresco, 295 x 224 cm.
Villa Farnesina, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.21)
Raphael
The Liberation of Saint Peter from Prison, 16th century.
Fresco.
Stanze di Raffaello, Vatican Palace, Vatican. (Photo Credit ill.22)
Michelangelo
Moses, c. 1513–15.
Marble, 235 cm.
San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.23)
Michelangelo
Sistine Chapel, 1537-41.
Fresco.
Vatican City. (Photo Credit ill.24)
Michelangelo
Piazza del Campidoglio, 1536–46.
Rome. (Photo Credit ill.25)
Michelangelo
The Last Judgment, 1537–41. Fresco.
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. (Photo Credit ill.26)
Annibale Carracci
The Bean Eater, 1583–90.
Oil on canvas, 57 x 68 cm.
Galleria Colonna, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.27)
Annibale Carracci
The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, 1597.
Fresco.
Palazzo Farnese, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.28)
Caravaggio
Rest on the Flight into Egypt, 1597.
Oil on canvas, 135.5 x 166.5 cm.
Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.29)
Caravaggio
The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1599–1600.
Oil on canvas, 322 x 340 cm.
San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.30)
Caravaggio
Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1601.
Oil on canvas, 230 x 175 cm.
Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. (Photo Credit ill.31)