Saturday, October 29, 2011

Rome in Ten

Rome is arches.
Roman Forum
Arch of Constantine

Rome is antiquities and imagination.
Circo Massimo - once a chariot course
Palatine Hill

Rome is marble.

Rome is frescos.
 And strained necks from gazing skyward.

Rome is the start of running into people more than once.
The boys from France

Rome is fountains.
We dunked our feet.
(Young women from Seoul, Korea and San Diego, CA)
Piazza Navona

Rome is remains and story.
Colosseum

Rome is death.
John Keats death mask
He died of TB. An English Romantic along with Lord  Byron and Percy Shelley.
He met Fanny Brawne when she was 18 years old. They met in the fall of 1818 and he realized how love would change his life, writing:
"Ask yourself my love whether you are not very cruel to have so enthralled me, so destroyed my freedom."
He later writes in a letter to her mother (words to Fanny):
"Goodbye Fanny, God bless you."
They exchanged locks of hair and he left for Italy. He died in the small room by the Bernini fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps.
He was 25.

Rome is columns.
Temple Adriano

Rome is squares, obelisks, statues, and churches.
Piazza Popolo

3 comments:

  1. Your pictures are grand. I love Rome. Could you feel the city? the history?

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  2. Ah the tragic lives of Keats and Brawne. Such romance, Locks of hair and letters. Your photos are fabulous hope to see some of Scotland.

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