On the same day that his wife gave birth to twins Anthony Doerr received the Rome Prize an award that gave him a year-long stipend & studio in Rome Four Seasons in Rome' charts the repercussions of that day describing Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world & the first year of parenthood He reads Pliny Dante & Keats
- the chroniclers of Rome who came before him
- & visits the piazzas temples & ancient cisterns they describe He attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II & takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus He & his family are embraced by the butchers grocers & bakers of the neighbourhood whose clamour of stories & idiosyncratic child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself This intimate & revelatory book is a celebration of Rome a wondrous look at new parenthood & a fascinating account of the alchemy of writers