Literary Rome: Strangers in Paradise

Fall has arrived and there's no better time to be in Rome! The air is cool and silky; moderate temperatues make being outdoors a pleasure. These sunny autumn days are called ottobrate romane and since antiquity they have been celebrated for their extraordinary light and their crisp, clear air.

The crisp air and the golden light of Rome in the fall and the winter have inspired many writers to wax eloquently upon the beauty of the Eternal City. Visiting Rome in the nineteenth century, the American writer Henry James extolled the extraordinary quality of Rome's atmosphere:

The aesthetic is so intense that you feel you should live on the taste of it, should extract the nutritive essence of the atmosphere. For positively it's such an atmosphere! The weather is perfect, the sky as blue as the most exploded tradition fames it, the whole air glowing and throbbing with lovely color....

James was just one of many American and British writers who found their muse in Rome. We'll be talking about those Strangers in Paradise in this issue of City News as we pay a visit to literary Rome and the achievements it has inspired.