FAQ: how do you remember all this “stuff” about Rome?

[revised January 2024] We are often asked how can we remember all the infos we provide during a tour. The game of jigsaw explains well our system of memorising information and concepts connected to the history of Rome. At the beginning you are… puzzled! You do not know where to start from, too many pieces, let’s imagine an image split in more then 2700 pieces, one for each year of the history of Rome!

You start from the frame: corners and flat pieces are easier to identify and this way you create a container for the other pieces, right? These are the basic infos on the city of Rome, the milestones, main events and dates, main artists and historical characters.

Then you proceed with groups of pieces similar by color or subject: these are the main stories related to a specific monument, church, museum, piazza….

Little by little all these clusters of pieces connect to each other and they “make sense”… the more you study, the easier it becomes to remember connections of events and people, because they have a logical relationship.

And final pieces of a puzzle are easy to insert, as they can only be there, in the few spots left blank… that’s the refinement part of our job of understanding… when you put the final touches to your “picture”.

Rome is our game, a fascinating endless game of putting pieces in a picture!