Here is another one of those herky-jerky travelogue videos of a famous city, in this case Rome. Titled “If You Have Never Wanted to Visit Rome, You Will After You See This,” it’s title could be inverted to read “If You Have Always Wanted to See Rome, You May Not After You See This.” The videographer is Alex Soloviev. There must be a new “school” of travel videography whose practitioners believe that zooming and twirling the camera back and forth will suggest that the boring old city is really “exciting.” I have run the videos of other cities whose beauty is treated by such artists. Never have I been able to resist expressing my belief that viewers would prefer long, slow, luxurious pans of city scenes rather than these hyperactive acrobatics. It is not the talent (so-called) of the artist or the versatility of the camera but the beauty of the subject that is important. Anyway, who could ever conceive the thought “If you have never wanted to visit Rome”?!

I hope Kuriositas, a website that I adore, will use more discrimination in selecting videos of beautiful old cities. On the other hand, as the screenshots above and below attest, this is Rome and its beauty comes through in spite of the exercise of “technique.” So I would rather have such videos than have Kuriositas abandon city vids altogether. Perish the thought!