Elizabeth Bowen's account of a time spent in Rome between February and Easter is
no ordinary guidebook but an evocation of a city - its hisotry, its architectur
e and, above all, its atmosphere. She describes the famous classical sites, conj
uring from the ruins visions of former inhabitants and their often bloody activi
ties. She speculates about the immense noise of ancient Rome, the problems cause
d by the Romans' dining posture, and the Roman temperament, which blended 'const
ructive will with supine fatalism'.
