Rome

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When in Rome … La Dolce Vita

  • 3 December 2023
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  • Rome

Doug said we couldn’t visit Rome without paying homage to Frederico Fellini. Besides, he said, there was a (very tenuous) connection with Katherine Mansfield, who occasionally worked as a film extra in London. Clearly, had she lived into the 1950s and ’60s, we may have seen her in a Fellini film. So, after securing our ultra-cheap flights for a four day side trip to Rome, we watched Fellini’s films Roma, 8½ and of course La Dolce Vita to get us...

When in Rome … Keats-Shelley House

  • 2 December 2023
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  • Rome

A Roman road runs past the bottom of the garden of our Menton apartment. Not far away, on the Italian side of the border, a plaque marking the continuation of this ancient road says that Pope Innocent IV passed this way in 1251, Catherine of Siena in 1376, Nicolo Machiavelli in 1511 and Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796. But this is recent history. In moonlight, if you tip your head slightly and tune out the noise of trains and the sea, the sandalled footfalls of centurion soldiers...