There's a power struggle going on across Europe these days. A few cities are competing against each other to see who shall emerge as the great twenty-first-century European metropolis. Will it be London? Paris? Berlin? Zurich? Maybe Brussels, center of the young union? They all strive to outdo one another culturally, architecturally, politically, fiscally. But Rome, it should be said, has not bothered to join the race for status. Rome doesn't compete. Rome just watches all the fussing and striving, completely unfazed, exuding an air like: Hey—do whatever you want, but I'm still Rome. I am inspired by the regal self-assurance of this town, so grounded and rounded, so amused and monumental, knowing that she is held securely in the palm of history. I would like to be like Rome when I am an old lady.

近来整个欧洲正在进行某种权力斗争。几个城市彼此竞争，看谁将成为21世纪的欧洲最大都会。是伦敦？巴黎？柏林？苏黎世？或是成立不久的欧盟中心布鲁塞尔？每一个都力求在文化、建筑、政治、财政方面胜过对方。然而对于罗马而言，可说尚未费心加入地位之争。罗马不去竞争。罗马只是冷眼旁观这些小题大做，全然无动于衷，表现出一副随你们做什么吧，我仍是罗马的姿态。这城市的从容自信令我感动，如此稳固而完美，如此有趣而不朽，知道自己被牢牢地握在历史之掌中。我年老的时候也想和罗马一样。

I take myself on a six-hour walk through town today. This is easy to do, especially if you stop frequently to fuel up on espresso and pastries. I start at my apartment door, then wander through the cosmopolitan shopping center that is my neighborhood. (Though I wouldn't exactly call this a neighborhood, not in the traditional sense. I mean, if it is a neighborhood, then my neighbors are those just-plain-regular-folk with names like the Valentinos, the Guccis and the Armanis.) This has always been an upscale district. Rubens, Tennyson, Stendhal, Balzac, Liszt, Wagner, Thackeray, Byron, Keats—they all stayed here.

今天我在城里走了六小时的路。这并不难，尤其如果你不时停下来喝杯浓咖啡，吃些糕点。我从公寓门口出发，而后漫步于邻近街坊的都市商业区。（尽管我不太精确地把它叫作传统意义上的街坊，但此处的街坊邻居，可都是那些名叫华伦天奴、古琦、乔治•阿玛尼的凡夫俗子。这儿始终是高级区，鲁本斯（Rubens）、丁尼生（Tennyson）、司汤达、巴尔扎克、李斯特、瓦格纳（Wagner）、萨克莱、拜伦、济慈——他们都待过这里。

I live in what they used to call "The English Ghetto," where all the posh aristocrats rested on their European grand tours. One London touring club was actually called "The Society of Dilettanti"—imagine advertising that you're a dilettante! Oh, the glorious shamelessness of it . . .

我住的地区从前叫英国区，即上流贵族在欧洲长 途旅行期间的休憩处。有个伦敦旅游俱乐部竟然叫作半瓶醋社团 （The Society of Dilettanti）——真想不到，拿你是半瓶醋做广告宣传！喔，脸皮厚得如此理直气壮……

I walk over to the Piazza del Popolo, with its grand arch, carved by Bernini in honor of the historic visit of Queen Christina of Sweden (who was really one of history's neutron bombs. Here's how my Swedish friend Sofie describes the great queen: "She could ride, she could hunt, she was a scholar, she became a Catholic and it was a huge scandal. Some say she was a man, but at least she was probably a lesbian. She dressed in pants, she went on archaeological excavations, she collected art and she refused to leave an heir"). Next to the arch is a church where you can walk in for free and see two paintings by Caravaggio depicting the martyrdom of Saint Peter and the conversion of Saint Paul (so overcome by grace that he has fallen to the ground in holy rapture; not even his horse can believe it). Those Caravaggio paintings always make me feel weepy and overwhelmed, but I cheer myself up by moving to the other side of the church and enjoying a fresco which features the happiest, goofiest, giggliest little baby Jesus in all of Rome.

我走到人民广场去，壮丽的拱门是贝尔尼尼（Bernini）的雕塑作品，为了纪念瑞典女皇克莉丝汀的历史性访问（她确实是历史上的一名秀异人物。我的瑞典朋友苏菲如此描述这位伟大的女皇她能骑马打猎，是位学者；她改信天主教，成了一大丑闻。有人说她是男人，但至少她可能是女同志 。她穿长裤，从事遗址发掘工作，收藏艺术 ，拒绝留下继承人。）拱门旁边有一所教堂，可免费进入参观卡拉瓦乔（Caravaggio）的两幅画作，其描绘着圣彼得殉道以及圣保罗皈依场景（蒙受恩典的圣保罗在神圣狂喜中扑倒在地，连他的马也无法置信）。卡拉瓦乔的画作向来使我感动得想哭。为了让自己快乐起来，于是我走到教堂另一边，去欣赏一幅壁画，画中是全罗马最快乐、最傻头傻脑、笑得最开心的小婴孩耶稣。