Country: Italy

Italy I know by its surfaces: the canals of Venice, the worn stone of Rome, all of it arriving secondhand and still unvisited.

  • Charcoal sketch of the great ruined amphitheatre and ancient ruins among ochre rooftops, a dome standing beyond in warm haze - never been abroad

    Rome

    Rome is the city half my schoolbooks came from — a living town built on and out of the ancient world, antiquity underfoot among the traffic, never seen.

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  • Charcoal sketch of Santa Maria della Salute across the misty Venice lagoon at dawn, a lone gondola on the water - never been abroad

    Venice

    No city has been handed to me more often, or visited less. I have owned Venice for thirty years without once paying the fare.

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