Old cities are not all like Rome.

Apartment house.

What is it about ancient cities that attracts thousands, millions of people to their gates. Rome is one of those cities, were unlike Athens history and art have been allowed to become one.  Watch over the city at dawn as a curtain is slowly drawn back to reveal a mix of imagination and spirit made one.The Rome I am talking about has nothing to do with people be they citizens or tourists, rather it is the spirit, the physical soul of the place. Unlike many old cities ,the past has not been has not been smothered by the creep of  grey concrete obliterating past gems.

The reason I feel this is that Rome still has that hand made feel about it. The colours of the earth are reflected in the stone, the brickwork, in the detail of its fountains and sculptures. You may dream of one, two thousand years of history without taking a step. This is possible because of the stains of memory recorded on the walls, stones of the city. Every wall has a past, the pox marks of past events, Leonard da Vinci considered the city's walls as works of art. There is no doubt that Rome influenced my own aesthetic vision, I have returned time and time again to history's textures in my creative work.

This is why Antoni Tapies has played such a major role in my imagery, the scored walls, the bullet marks of the Spanish Civil War. This aging of past events while allowing a city to renew itself is what is important in being human. A few years ago on a visit to Barcelona I visited  the Tapie Museum and to my surprise viewed an exhibition of returned postcards from the dead letter office. You could read the feelings, thoughts of all these people from ever corner of the world no matter their location. These undelivered postcards had taken on a life of their own, some had circumnavigated the globe several times in search of a resting place, but the message was kept alive by their very existence.

Romes buildings and sculptures are very much like those postcards, prompting memories of past events both good and bad. They are old enough to present human dreams and aspirations in a way that I don't that another city would be capable of. This eternal quality is something I personally treasure, it is able to transport us beyond the present to the world of dreams.

Rome

Very quick sketch of St. Carlo. [The only one i have].

Entering Rome is always an exciting experience no matter how you do it. Whether driving down the Appian Way, sweeping past the Lombardy populars, each a living legacy to Ancient Rome's Christian candles that once lite the way. Carl Jung felt that this was one of the most concentrated place on earth, the spirit vibrations often felt by travelers seems to enforce this.

It is hard not to feel the same euphoria, treading your way through Rome's chaotic traffic, dodging the Fiat 500s. Vespas mount the footpath to avoid the traffic lights, one once ran over my foot as I waited to cross the road. Then there is the appearance of the people, everyone dressed in their best as though on their way to a wedding. Beautiful young women in ridiculously high heeled shoes, eyes set straight ahead without any outward sign that they are aware of the world around them. Always dressed in the hight of fashion, hair piled high, fresh from the hairdressing saloon as they negotiated the crowded street. Even builder's labourers  carry their work cloths in bags only to be worn when they get to their job.Italians would never be seen in the 60's wearing anything draggy.

Rome is so full of must see sights that often my walks would draw me from the most direct route towards the art school. Starting in Trastevere , were I lived , I would negotiate one of Mussolini half built staircases, wooden at the top, but built of marble at the bottom were it was wide enough for twenty people abreast to descend in a line. This is one of the delights of the city, everything is conceived and built on a grand scale.

Sometimes after crossing Piazza Venezia, I would be tempted into a short detour into Rome's past instead of continuing down Via del Corso. Past the Pantheon for a quick coffee in the local cafe, I often wondered what the Pantheon would look like if it still possessed it's bronze roof cladding, instead of having it stripped by the Barberini family to build the Tabernacle standing over the tomb of St. Peter in the Vatican. There is a saying in the city "what the barbarians never did the Barberini did", such is the ego of Popes.

Then I could walk on to Piazza Navona, former site for Roman chariot racing, now one of the most elegant piazza in the city. The figure on Bernini's fountain holding up his hand in fear that his arch rival Borromini's church  St. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane would fall on his fountain. The church houses Bernini "The Ecstasy of St. Therese" one of the most sensual sculptures in Rome. Later when I meet my future wife Heather I would continually give her tour guides around this magic city relating it's story. It is hard to convey this joy of discovery to anyone who has not experienced it.