the ashlars are grey but with a veneer of marble, agate, chalcedony, jasper, nephrite and more exotic materials;
window shutters are ornamented with brass or iron arabesques;
there are carved friezes, armorial bearings and grotesques;
erosion has mellowed and subtly harmonized everything;
wealthier buildings surround vitryl-roofed cloister courts with statues, plants, fishponds and fountains;
there are twisting streets and alleys and small plazas;
people walk, drive cars or ride horses or stathas.
We feel that we have been there. I remember "I remember Ys..." See here.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Indeed, I get the feeling of "having been there" somewhere from this description of old Nova Roma: I mean the ORIGINAL Rome herself! I've been to Rome more than once and every bit cited about Nova Roma can be found in Rome: ancient, time worn buildings of brick and stone, including some using veneers of costly material, palaces or mansions with interior court yards (some of them gardens), shutters and armorial bearings (many of them the arms of long departed Popes), statuary of all kinds, twisting and winding streets (as well as broad boulevards), etc.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Another point I should have mentioned is that I even saw a glass roofed garden in an interior courtyard: at the Gardner Museum in Boston! And of course we see wealthy Martians using glass roofed gardens in Stirling's novel IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS.
Sean
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