MEMORIES OF ITALY BY CEDRIC BARDAWIL AND ISABEL MILLAR

Memories of Italy, July 2019

Revisiting our photographs from last summer’s travels in Italy made the trip feel like a distant fantasy. It was my first time in Rome, so we started on the well-trodden path from the Coliseum to the Pantheon. We went on to the Galleria Nazionale, stunned by the unceremonious presentation of room after room of twentieth century masterpieces: Twombly, Flavin, Burri, Boetti (and the lack of any other tourists). We ate traditional Roman style pizza at Ai Marmi in Travestere, which is only open in the evenings so we arrived a few minutes before service at 6.30pm to witness the seamless preparation and ate the freshest margherita pizzas. We visited the Galleria Borghese, to find Bernini’s Baroque creations, which effortlessly turn marble into flesh, alongside masterpieces by Titian, Raphael and Caravaggio studded with gold works by Lucio Fontana. After a few days of feasting on Roman culture and perfect meals we travelled to Forte dei Marmi by train, only to find stubborn grey clouds overhanging the seaside town. With not much to do, we took another train to Siena and spent the night at Villa di Geggiano, straight out of a Bertolucci movie. These are some of our favourite memories. 

Words by Isabel Millar. Photographs by Cedric Bardawil and Isabel Millar