Roman Holiday

I’ve been taking a couple of city trips this year, the first being a Roman holiday in Rome which is a city I’ve never a strong desire to go to, particularly as I imagined it to be ridiculously hot, overcrowded and very noisy with traffic. However, following another cold grey summer in Scotland I decided that heat was something I needed. Well, how different it was to what I imagined. Yes, it was hot, but not unbearably provided I paced myself sensibly. Yes, it was busy, particularly at the main sights but not as bad as I imagined. It was mid August and I’ve been to Venice at that time of year where I’m queuing just to walk along a thoroughfare. Away from the entrances to the Vatican or the Coliseum, the streets were fine to walk along and with little traffic in the centre there were no car horns from angry Romans.

And oh, the history. I found it hard to believe that I was walking in what was the centre of civilisation for many centuries, an empire that stretched from Syria to Antonine Wall in Scotland, just a mile from where I was born. The Forum and Palatine Hill was astounding in scale, the coliseum was, well that was hot, noisy and overcrowded, and the Vatican Museums were amazing. I also visited the Borghese Gallery which has several of Bernini’s most famous and astounding sculptures. His David is far better than Michelangelo’s as far as I’m concerned.

So of course, I had the inspiration for two new pen drawings. The first being of probably the most photographed viewpoint over the Forum. It seemed rather unoriginal but I saw it one evening at dusk and the sight of the Arch or Septimus Severus brightly lit while framed by the dark pillars of the temples of Saturn and Vespasian just appealed to my love of dramatic lighting.

The other drawing is of another temple dedicated to Hercules. There are remains of temples all over Rome but I particularly liked this one, sitting in a small park by a major road junction, with it’s round structure and pointy roof with a water fountain in the foreground. This temple sits opposite a church which has the “Mouth of Truth” at the entrance, made famous by Gregory Peck playing a trick on Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday”, so I included a Vespa as a nod to them.

Both of these original artworks are available to purchase on the originals page.