The Spirit of Rome

The Spirit of Rome is a classic Italian travel text By Vernon Lee focussing on the country's great capital, Rome. I was brought up in Rome, from the age of twelve to that of seventeen, but did not return there for many years afterwards. I discovered it anew for myself, while knowing all its sites and its details; discovered, that is to say, its meaning to my thoughts and feelings. Hence, in all my impressions, a mixture of familiarity and of astonishment; a sense, perhaps answering to the reality, that Rome--it sounds a platitude--is utterly different from everything else, and that we are therefore in different relations to it.