There are places in the world that I have no particular longing to visit but which I love to read about. Rome is one of those places. For all the other cities and regions in Italy that I long to visit, Rome does not entice me. Milan, yes. Venice, absolutely. Rome, not so much. But I love reading about the city and so turned the pages of The Seasons of Rome by Paul Hofmann with delight.
Austrian by birth, Hofmann (who died in 2008) spent decades living and working in Rome. By the time The Seasons of Rome was published in 1997, he had lived in the city for more than 30 years (including during the war) and the book reflects both his first-hand and his learned knowledge of the capital’s history. In these short journal-style entries, he is able to examine a year in modern Rome and see in it the echoes of its classical heritage as well as the more recent past.
It is recognizably the work of a journalist. Hofmann was chief of the New York Times bureau in Rome for many years and his writing is factual and understated. He uses the first person but without gushing and emoting in the manner of many current columnists. Essentially, he reports.
I was fascinated by the city’s never-ending appetite for papal gossip. Neighbours gossip about the pope’s health constantly, with everyone seemingly having some connection, however tenuous, inside the papal state to provide private info. In turn, the gossips then gossip about their sources. One of Hofmann’s neighbours gets her (unerringly correct and days ahead of official new sources) updates on Pope John Paul II’s ailments through the sister of her daughter-in-law:
She is an unmarried woman in her thirties who ten years ago was hired as a computer operator by an administrative office in the pontifical state; meanwhile she appears to have risen to a quasi-executive position under the supervision of a high prelate. ..I remember her as a chubbily attractive, fashionably dressed blonde. Later I was told she lives in a nice apartment in a church-owned building not far from the Vatican, has a Filipina maid, and in August every year spends her vacations in Switzerland. Inevitably there is talk that she has a clerical friend.
Innocent that I am, I was a little shocked by the idea of a “clerical friend”. But then I am rather surprised by the mention of modern-day mistresses in any context. If you trust what you read by Italian and Irish authors, a mistress seems to be an absolutely essential accessory even for modest businessmen in Catholic countries.
Hofmann loves Rome and made his home there for many years but is far from blind to its faults. What was most fascinating for me were the pieces (and they are many) which discuss the difficulties of Roman life: the mail lady who comes maybe two or three times a week (as opposed to the promised 9 times); the disruptive and never-ending strikes by unions and students; the nepotism and cronyism among politicians; the pervasive influence of the mob; the racism experienced by Asian and African immigrants…the list goes on. But he is not negative, just truthful. There is never any doubt that Rome is a city he loves and through his eyes even I could see its appeal.
The Captive Reader 
I don’t know Rome but I used to work for the Catholic Church and consequently I have many friends who have lived there, often within the Church’s remit, and what you write about here is so familiar. When John Paul II died and there was an election I felt I knew more about what was happening in Italy than I did about what was going on in my own back yard.
Dear Captive,
Like you, I was more excited about the prospect of visiting other places in Italy, like Venice and Florence, than Rome — Rome seemed kind of intimidating, and hard to get my mind around: so many things to see, no clear focus, so much to learn about before you go, in order to make sense of it, from Ancient Rome, to the history of the papacy, to Baroque architecture…the list goes on.
But I finally went last year, and I have to say, it’s an amazing place that well rewarded all the hours I spent reading to prepare for my one week there, which was all I could afford. The way all the various layers of history rub up against each other, just in one walk down any street, from classical times to Mussolini, will give you chills. And unlike Florence and Venice, which are also utterly beautiful but feel like big museums, Rome is also a big, vibrant city in which people actually are living, going about their 21st-century lives against this spectacular backdrop.
Go, you won’t be sorry! But read a lot of books first. This Hofmann is a good start. Another wonderful one if you like architecture — and Rome is a great place to like architecture — is “Not Built in a Day.” It’s full of walking tours focused on different aspects of the buildings of the city, and is a fantastic way to organize a visit. Along with seeing the art and enjoying the food, of course!
The only time I was in Rome I had the worst cold, and I remember almost nothing of the city, though we spent several days there. I would like to go back, now that I have some understanding of Roman history. Milan – not so much. Florence and Venice – any time.
This reminds me of Eleanor Clark’s memoir, Rome and a Villa: she went to Rome on a Guggenheim fellowship, ostensibly to write a novel, but became captivated by the city around her, other parts of Italy, and particularly Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli. (I fall into a ‘very partial to Rome’-category, although it is an exhausting and, occasionally, discouragingly difficult city.)