John Keats and the Casina Rosa

By Sandra Tarling
I Weep for Adonais -- he is dead!
O, weep for Adonais! though our tears
Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!
. . .
The soul of Adonais, like a star,
Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.
"Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats,"
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
The "Casina Rossa" or "Little Red House" sits next to the Spanish Steps in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. An unprepossessing building built in 1725, it blends in with the neighboring three and four story buildings surrounding the piazza. The Casina Rossa is not renowned for its distinctive architecture, bu...