Agnes Crawford

Peak Rome

Glimpses of a week packed with tours in Rome (which really doesn’t have to be busy). Never the same route twice

“Adult content”. We are so doomed…

A divine intervention at the Palazzo Farnese The mythological frescoes painted by Annibale Carracci at the Farnese family's Roman palace are legendary in their own right, writes Agnes Crawford

Delighted to have a piece in November’s @apollo-magazine.com
In print or online here:

apollo-magazine.com/palazzo-farn...

One of my favourite columns on the Palatine this morning, here’s a post about the time I went to where it came from (no paywall) open.substack.com/pub/understa...

October's Monthly Postcard from Rome When I was twenty-one years old, at the tail-end of the last millennium, the dissertation I wrote for my degree in Architectural History at Edinburgh University was called “Piero della Francesca: Arch...

October's monthly postcard from Rome. Well, Urbino.

WHAT YOU FAIL TO SEE MR POPE

Presently leading a delightful band of folk on a Piero della Francesca themed study trip. Yesterday we meandered across the mountains to Urbino to admire the palace of Federico da Montefeltro “of glorious memory”. The first time I went I was twenty and it was quite the odyssey

It’s from the Christ child of the Madonna of Senigallia

Presently leading a delightful band of folk on a Piero della Francesca themed study trip. Yesterday we meandered across the mountains to Urbino to admire the palace of Federico da Montefeltro “of glorious memory”. The first time I went I was twenty and it was quite the odyssey

(This is not a complaint, it was fabulous and also cost €4)

I took a train in Umbria today and it trundled all the way to 1986

Most of the image is of a white mosaic and the top part is small pumice stones

That magical moment when the pumice is gently cleared away revealing, for the first time in nearly 2000 years, a white mosaic.
#MosaicMonday #Pompeii

20 September 1870: La breccia di Porta Pia Today is the anniversary of the breaching of the Aurelian Walls at Porta Pia, walls which had served as defences of the city for sixteen centuries.

155 years ago today Rome fell from papal control and became the capital of the new Italian Kingdom (No paywall)
understandingrome.substack.com/p/20-septemb...

20 September 1870: La breccia di Porta Pia Today is the anniversary of the breaching of the Aurelian Walls at Porta Pia, walls which had served as defences of the city for sixteen centuries.

155 years ago today Rome fell from papal control and became the capital of the new Italian Kingdom (No paywall)
understandingrome.substack.com/p/20-septemb...

The Devil's Chair, or the tomb of (perhaps) Hadrian's freedman As I have mentioned elsewhere I very much like combining errands with a spot of antiquity.

(21) The Devil's Chair, or the tomb of (perhaps) Hadrian's freedman
understandingrome.substack.com/p/the-devils...

Thanks for sharing!

Some super floors in and around Rome on last week’s tours

Glorious!!

You know you’re living in strange times when Last Night of the Proms feels like the least jingoistic thing happening in Britain at the moment.

September's Postcard from Rome In this second week of September cloudy skies and storms are trying, not entirely successfully, to sweep away the heat of summer leaving the air heavy, claustrophobic, and muggy.

September's (free) Postcard from Rome: a beach day at the tail end of summer, and a rediscovered Mantegna lost for five centuries and rediscovered lurking in Pompei

September's Postcard from Rome In this second week of September cloudy skies and storms are trying, not entirely successfully, to sweep away the heat of summer leaving the air heavy, claustrophobic, and muggy.

September's (free) Postcard from Rome: a beach day at the tail end of summer, and a rediscovered Mantegna lost for five centuries and rediscovered lurking in Pompei

thank you!

A Wander through Ostia Antica, part 1 From the via Ostiense to the Theatre

New post has been sent to subscribers, it’s the first part of an itinerary through relentlessly evocative Ostia Antica which is just the best place for exploring ever ❤️💚

This courtyard in Ferrara reminded me of St Jerome in his Study, by the inestimable Antonello da Messina

“I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day…”
Crossing the tidal Thames on a bus yesterday reminded me of the Heart of Darkness, & a trio of Empires. Post now liberated from its paywall:
understandingrome.substack.com/p/never-far-...

“I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day…”
Crossing the tidal Thames on a bus yesterday reminded me of the Heart of Darkness, & a trio of Empires. Post now liberated from its paywall:
understandingrome.substack.com/p/never-far-...

Sunday 31st August is surely one of the Sundayest Sundays of them all. This was the coast near Rome earlier today, more or less where Aeneas washed up. Probably.

Villa Borghese on a (very gentle) trot this morning 💙💚💙

Kimbell presents Caravaggio’s "Judith Beheading Holofernes," one of the artist’s most renowned paintings FORT WORTH, TX— The Kimbell Art Museum announced today that it will display Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes as a Guest of Honor on loan from the

Caravaggio's influential "Judith Beheading Holofernes," borrowed from the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica in Rome, will be on view at the Kimbell in Fort Worth, September 14, 2025–January 11, 2026