I was standing on a scaffold in a small village outside of Orvieto last autumn, scraping at a section of a facade that had been “restored” with modern, mass-produced tiles, and I felt a genuine sense of grief. People often…
I was kneeling in a muddy trench outside of Via Appia last autumn, my knees soaked through, staring at a fragment of crushed volcanic tuff that most tourists would have stepped over without a second thought. Everyone talks about the…
I was standing in a cramped apartment block in the outskirts of Naples last Tuesday, tracing the hairline fracture where a load-bearing pillar met a non-structural partition. Most historians look at the ina casa housing programme and see nothing but…
I was kneeling in the damp dust of a basement in Ravenna last autumn, tracing the irregular grit of a lime mortar joint, when I realized how much we misinterpret the Renaissance. Most textbooks treat the concept of vitruvius and…
I was kneeling in the dust of a crumbling nave near Cremona last autumn, my fingers tracing the uneven edge of a single, sun-baked unit, when I realized how much we misinterpret the Lombard brick tradition. Most people—and even some…
I remember standing in a narrow alleyway in Naples last October, the air thick with the scent of damp earth and espresso, staring at a crumbling lintel that everyone else had dismissed as “decaying.” My hands were coated in a…
I was standing in the dust of a site near Segovia last autumn, squinting at a series of weathered stone channels, when it hit me how much we overcomplicate this. People love to talk about the “grandeur” of Roman engineering…
I remember standing in a narrow alleyway in Naples last autumn, my fingers tracing a seam where a jagged piece of 1950s concrete had been shoved against a centuries-old limestone block. The texture was wrong—too smooth, too cold, and utterly…
I was standing in the Piazza della Rotonda last Tuesday, watching a tour group shuffle past, and I felt that familiar, sharp irritation. Everyone was staring up at the massive portico, talking about “divine proportions” and “architectural miracles,” as if…
I was standing in a humid courtyard in Palermo last Tuesday, squinting at a modern facade that tried far too hard to look “timeless.” It was one of those recent attempts at the classical orders revived, but instead of the…