Agnes Crawford
@understandingrome.bsky.social
Qualified Rome guide specialising in personalised tours. 23 years experience. Native Londoner, naturalised Roman. (Instagram: understandingrome)
Pinned
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.
understandingrome.substack.com
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
Glimpses of a week packed with tours in Rome (which really doesn’t have to be busy). Never the same route twice
November 9, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Glimpses of a week packed with tours in Rome (which really doesn’t have to be busy). Never the same route twice
Delighted to have a piece in November’s @apollo-magazine.com
In print or online here:
apollo-magazine.com/palazzo-farn...
In print or online here:
apollo-magazine.com/palazzo-farn...
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
apollo-magazine.com
November 1, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Delighted to have a piece in November’s @apollo-magazine.com
In print or online here:
apollo-magazine.com/palazzo-farn...
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 29, 2025 at 5:34 PM
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. Well, Urbino.
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...
understandingrome.substack.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:56 PM
October's monthly postcard from Rome. Well, Urbino.
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
WHAT YOU FAIL TO SEE MR POPE
really enjoying all the people trying to explain the bible to the pope today
October 2, 2025 at 11:37 AM
WHAT YOU FAIL TO SEE MR POPE
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
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
October 1, 2025 at 8:13 AM
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
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
October 1, 2025 at 8:13 AM
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
I took a train in Umbria today and it trundled all the way to 1986
September 26, 2025 at 3:34 PM
I took a train in Umbria today and it trundled all the way to 1986
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
That magical moment when the pumice is gently cleared away revealing, for the first time in nearly 2000 years, a white mosaic.
#MosaicMonday #Pompeii
#MosaicMonday #Pompeii
September 22, 2025 at 10:54 AM
That magical moment when the pumice is gently cleared away revealing, for the first time in nearly 2000 years, a white mosaic.
#MosaicMonday #Pompeii
#MosaicMonday #Pompeii
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
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...
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.
understandingrome.substack.com
September 20, 2025 at 7:03 AM
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...
understandingrome.substack.com/p/20-septemb...
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...
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.
understandingrome.substack.com
September 20, 2025 at 7:03 AM
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...
understandingrome.substack.com/p/20-septemb...
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
(21) The Devil's Chair, or the tomb of (perhaps) Hadrian's freedman
understandingrome.substack.com/p/the-devils...
understandingrome.substack.com/p/the-devils...
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.
understandingrome.substack.com
September 18, 2025 at 6:20 PM
(21) The Devil's Chair, or the tomb of (perhaps) Hadrian's freedman
understandingrome.substack.com/p/the-devils...
understandingrome.substack.com/p/the-devils...
Some super floors in and around Rome on last week’s tours
September 15, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Some super floors in and around Rome on last week’s tours
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
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 13, 2025 at 9:05 PM
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.
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
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.
understandingrome.substack.com
September 10, 2025 at 9:15 PM
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 (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.
understandingrome.substack.com
September 10, 2025 at 9:15 PM
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
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
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 ❤️💚
A Wander through Ostia Antica, part 1
From the via Ostiense to the Theatre
understandingrome.substack.com
August 28, 2025 at 8:42 PM
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 ❤️💚
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
This courtyard in Ferrara reminded me of St Jerome in his Study, by the inestimable Antonello da Messina
August 28, 2025 at 9:50 PM
This courtyard in Ferrara reminded me of St Jerome in his Study, by the inestimable Antonello da Messina
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
“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-...
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-...
September 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
“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-...
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-...
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-...
September 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
“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-...
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.
August 31, 2025 at 8:17 PM
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 💙💚💙
August 31, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Villa Borghese on a (very gentle) trot this morning 💙💚💙
Reposted by Agnes Crawford
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
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
fortworthreport.org
August 30, 2025 at 7:10 PM
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
This courtyard in Ferrara reminded me of St Jerome in his Study, by the inestimable Antonello da Messina
August 28, 2025 at 9:50 PM
This courtyard in Ferrara reminded me of St Jerome in his Study, by the inestimable Antonello da Messina