Postcard from Rome

“At last—for the first time—I live! It beats everything: it leaves the Rome of your fancy—your education—nowhere. It makes Venice—Florence—Oxford—London—seem like little cities of pasteboard. I went reeling and moaning thro’ the streets, in a fever of enjoyment.”

From:  The Letters of Henry James, 1 (24-25)

I was in the fortunate circumstance of being abl…