"Rome brings out the worst in people. If you have any weakness - physical, mental, or moral - the climate, the way of life, or something about the city will accentuate it. I make no claims to be a diagnostician, but I have seen it happen any number of times. People find that a physical illness, such as diabetes or arthritis, gets worse there. Normally fine women go completely berserk over some Italian papagallo, or Lothario, and it takes a real jolt to bring them back to their senses. Anyone would agree that Rome has a strange effect on visitors if they witnessed - as I have - the antics of movie starts, the caperings of elderly men on vacation away from home, and the dear old ladies who are giving romance one last fling in Europe. I have known at least a half-dozen men and women, including members of the clergy, who have become mentally disturbed while in Rome. Obviously, the many fine Americans living in Rome and loving the Eternal City are witnesses to the fact that for many men and women the Roman atmosphere presents no problem. Saints have been made in Rome, too, and holy people today walk the ancient streets. But the ratio of saints sinners, I have a strong suspicion, is a bit out of balance."
-American Pastor in Rome, by James Cunningham.
A panoply of evidence comes to mind!
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