A PLACE FOR SIDEWAYS TRAINS OF THOUGHT
This is the third time this has happened to me. I open the Rome bus app (Roma Bus), click on the tab to check the route of a bus (it was the 32 this time) and a screen appears with a map of a large part of North-West Africa. Are there secret bus routes running... Continue Reading →
"Aesthetics is to artists as ornithology is to birds" Barnett Newman
A city where nothing is ever at the same angle I love Naples and the Neapolitan language. Walking around Naples in May 2017, I came across this street where nothing appeared to be at the same angle. It seemed to me to depict, not just physically, Â one of the characteristics of Naples which make it... Continue Reading →
I recently came across these two short films by the French director Chris Marker (1921-2012) from Bestiaire (1990). The first one is a cat sleeping on a piano. And the second a series of owls, mostly swivelling their heads rather amazingly. Looking at the cat, I realised for the first time that sleeping can be... Continue Reading →
Berlin, Altes Museum, Egyptian Section
I don’t think anyone else has organised a gymnastics competition for angels. Here you can see some of the top contenders in action...  I often think about this peculiar painting of the Annunciation by Lorenzo Lotto. As you can see,  God doesn't seem to have much confidence that the angel is going to carry out... Continue Reading →
Some time ago I posted an article on my liking for random walks, in which I outlined an insanely complicated method to get to places you weren't planning to see. Recently I found another way to go to randomly explore the world, without getting up from my chair. A few days ago, as I was... Continue Reading →
I keep on walking past this hoarding half-way down via Giulia, in the one ugly spot on one of Rome's most beautiful streets. I always wonder, "Is this Rome's new traffic plan?" Because that's what it says at the bottom: Rome - Traffic and Mobility Action Plan. And I wonder “When is this going to... Continue Reading →
When I was a child, my family used to travel from Britain to Italy most summers to stay with my Italian grand-parents. Every time we crossed the Channel I was sick. I was given all kinds of advice, sometimes from other passengers, and I tried hard to apply their methods. I remember "stare at the... Continue Reading →
