Huge herds of vigorous, curious, open-eyed Americans freely roaming the world are, it seems to me, quite possibly a vital national resource today as at no other time in our history.

trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.

A handwritten, personal letter has become a genuine modern-day luxury, like a child's pony ride.

The law changes and flows like water, and . . . the stream of women's rights law has become a sudden rushing torrent.

Rumor and gossip, like sound itself, appear to travel by wave-effect, sheer preposterosity being no barrier.

the metabolism of a consumer society requires it continually to eat and excrete, every day throwing itself away in plastic bags.

How is the newcomer to deal with Rome? What is one to make of this marble rubble, this milk of wolves, this blood of Caesars, this sunrise of Renaissance, this baroquery of blown stone, this warm hive of Italians, this antipasto of civilization?