Terms of use

The Slow Architect is written by Giulio Romano, which is a pen name. It is free to read. Below is what is worth knowing before you reuse anything from this site, or before you set off with one of its guides on your phone.

Words and pictures. The words and the photos are mine, unless the caption says otherwise. The old prints, drawings and photographs come from museums and libraries that publish their public-domain collections openly, among them the Rijksmuseum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Library of Congress: the caption names the institution each time, and since those images are not mine, nobody needs my permission to use them. Photos taken from Wikimedia Commons carry their author and licence in the caption, and their own licence applies; where I have changed one, for instance by blurring a face, the caption says so. The maps are drawn from OpenStreetMap data, which is shared under the Open Database Licence: the credit sits on the map and in the caption, and anyone who reuses a map has to leave it where it is. A few essays use views from Google Earth, with Google’s credit left on the image and repeated in the caption, as Google asks. They appear only in essays, which carry no advertising and no affiliate links, and they belong to Google and its data providers, not to me, so they cannot be reused from here. Google Earth is a trademark of Google LLC. The drawings and the maps are made with the help of artificial intelligence, as the About page explains.

The words and the photos are mine, unless the caption says otherwise. The old prints come from the Rijksmuseum and are in the public domain, so they are not mine and nobody needs my permission to use them. Photos taken from Wikimedia Commons carry their author and licence in the caption, and their own licence applies. The maps are drawn from OpenStreetMap data, which is shared under the Open Database Licence: the credit sits on the map and in the caption, and anyone who reuses a map has to leave it where it is. The drawings and the maps are made with the help of artificial intelligence, as the About page explains.

If you want to reuse a piece of text, a photo, a drawing or a map, write to me. The answer is almost always yes, as long as the name of the site and a link to the page come with it. A short quotation with a link needs no asking. Saving an image to Pinterest is fine; that is partly what they are for.

Practical details. I check prices, opening hours, transport and closures against official sources, and every guide says when it was last checked. After that date things change, and more often than you would think: a museum shuts for works, a funicular stops for months, a ticket goes up. Before you go, look at the official websites, especially for bookings and winter hours. Roads, paths and car parks are described as they stood on the date of the check; on the ground, common sense counts for more than any page. The information is given in good faith, but I cannot promise it stays accurate over time.

If you find something that has changed or is wrong, write to me. Slips I simply fix; errors of fact I fix and say so in a note at the end of the piece.

Links. Many pages link to other people's sites, from museums to ticket offices. I choose them because they are useful, but I do not run them and I cannot answer for what is on them. When a page contains affiliate links, it says so at the top of the box that holds them: if you book through one, the site earns a small commission and your price does not change. No piece is paid for. If a museum or anyone else gives me a ticket or a trip, I say so at the top of the piece.

Your data. What happens to your address when you sign up for the letter, and which cookies the site uses, is explained in the Privacy Policy and the Cookie Policy, at the foot of every page.

Contact. theslowarchitect@gmail.com

Last updated: 28 October 2026.