Seven deadly sins. Seven thousand years. Seven hills.

I had some business in Rome. Miranda and I decided to fly there the Friday before and explore the city together. Two of the many things I love about my wife are her sense of adventure and her bravery. Reflecting on our trips together there’s been an unconscious pattern. Wherever we go we rent some sort of machine for moving around the terrain, whether land, air or sea. This time we choose to rent a QUADRO 3, a 350cc three wheel scooter with a low centre of gravity and hydraulic tilt system, making it the perfect vehicle for Rome’s humps, potholes and tramlines.

Armed with a selection of pre-booked ‘Jump the Queue’ entry tickets, Miranda sat behind me with Google Maps in her left hand and her right on my shoulder, trusting me to manoeuvre the beast. Travelling in this way we were able to cover over a hundred miles around the city in the weekend.
After breakfast on a sunny terrace at our hotel, our first landmark was the Galleria Borghese in a park of the same name to the north of the city. It houses a substantial collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V. Sixteenth and seventeenth century masterpieces by Bernini, Caravaggio, Raphael and Rubens tell stories of Roman Gods and Jesus Christ. Numerous creative techniques and materials including mosaics and marble bring the powerful forces of religious doctrine to life. How was it possible to carve such delicate beauty from stone and to make flesh and silk look so real?

Next stop was the Vatican Museum in the boundaries of the Vatican City, the wealthiest city per capita in the world. Fortunately, we narrowly missed getting ‘upgraded’ to a group tour. The museum is home to artefacts going back to the earliest days of the Egyptian empire. In two hours we explored the last seven thousand years of our history. We wandered past statues recognising great leaders, magnificent maps of Italy and tapestries telling stories of cardinal sins, brutal sackings and the expansion of the great Roman Empire. The meandering ended in the Sistine Chapel where our necks ached from marvelling at Michelangelo’s paintings. If you take the exit at the back right of the Chapel, technically restricted to group tours, you can get straight into the Basilica, take the left and you have to queue again. We took the right and then, inside the Church, were stopped until I said we were going to confess and then we were ushered into the inner sanctum. At the confession box I considered confessing that my sin was to lie that I was going to confess .. but we skipped the box and joined a small service.

After cocktails, we dined overlooking the Pantheon with its pillars pillaged from Egypt, to the sound of a band playing Pink Floyd.

Rome was built around seven hills. We decided to see it from the top of each and planned a route on Sunday around the city. Each summit has its own unique character, several fill you with total awe - a truly uplifting feeling. A keyhole in a door that gives a view of something I will not give away the secret - but it’s a very special sight. A statue of the revolutionary Garibaldi on his horse who helped lead the unification of Italy. The Presidential Palace. In the valley between the Capitol Hill (Campidoglio) and the Palatine Hill (Palentino) lie the remains of the Forum (Foro Romano). Walking through the Forum, the heart of the ancient Empire, you can almost hear the hooves of ghost horses of military processions. You can’t help but feel inspired.

The weekend was a total sensory overload. At the end we were both completely frazzled. Seven deadly sins, seven thousand years and seven hills is just too much to process. But the tonic is powerful and the timing of a strong dose of marvel, awe and inspiration is a great cleanse as I prepare for the next chapter of my career leading KPMG’s cutting edge technology thinking.