I am Muslim, from Bangladesh, and the Vatican is not my faith’s holy site. That is the honest starting point for this guide. I had no particular religious connection to the place. I was visiting because it is one of the most significant sites on earth — because the art inside is among the greatest ever made and because Vatican City is, technically, its own...
I had been looking at photographs of the Colosseum since I was a child. In school textbooks, on television, in the film Gladiator — that image of the great oval amphitheatre was so familiar it had almost become abstract. Just a symbol. A logo for Ancient Rome. Then I stood inside it. The goosebumps were immediate and embarrassing. I am not someone who gets emotional...