Why Rome?

I needed a walk. A hill would be good. So, I headed to Aventine, one of the original seven. At the top I sort of just happened into Santa Sabina, a 5th-century basilica. Simple, cool, and quiet. The cypress wood doors at the entrance hold the oldest known public image of the Crucifixion, carved sometime around 430 AD.

Outside, people were filing through a gate. I followed. It opened into the Giardino degli Aranci (the Garden of Oranges), a terrace garden laid out in 1932 with a jaw-dropping view. All of Rome spread out below, domes and rooftops and hills stacked against the afternoon light.

That's why Rome.