Rome, Latium — August 19, 2024

A pale stone Baroque church façade with a central arched doorway, decorative pilasters, sculpted niches, and a small cross at the roofline.

August nineteenth, Rome. I walked from a quiet Baroque façade — pale stone, a small cross at the roofline, cars idling on cobble — to a semicircle of brick that used to hold a crowd. Rows of niches, weathered arches, a mesh fence keeping me honest. Later, the Colosseum under overcast light, framed by a cypress and a working excavation. What I kept thinking, between cypress avenues and a crenellated gate: Rome doesn't preserve its ruins so much as live around them. The old wall is just another neighbor with a fence.

A row of tall, conical cypress trees rises above a manicured green hedge that lines a paved pathway.