Roman holidays: wrestling with the eternal city

Classicist Ferdinand Addis explains how to escape the tourist traps and get a different perspective on the Italian capital

The ancient Roman Colosseum is illuminated to mark World AIDS Day, 01 December 2007 in Rome. The World Health Organization who started World AIDS Day promotes awareness and focus on the globa

Every writer on Rome remembers the moment the city first truly inspired them. Edward Gibbon claimed to have come up with the idea for his Decline and Fall while listening to barefooted friars singing vespers one autumn evening on the Capitoline Hill. Percy Shelley composed his verse epic, Prometheus Unbound, looking out over the city’s rooftops from the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. Robert Hughes, more recently, remembered being undone by the beauty of the Piazza San Pietro, stumbling unexpectedly upon Bernini’s famous curving colonnade.

My moment had a different flavour. A disused factory building on the outskirts of Rome had been taken over by students as a party venue. A friend took me along. I could feel the bass from the speaker rig pulsing through the thick evening air. The occasional glow of cigarette lighters illuminated walls of decaying red brick, marked with old graffiti. A thin man in a tracksuit sold beers out of a shopping trolley, and his friend sidled over, without saying anything, took one of my hands and started to dance, round and round in a sort of capering waltz.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More