As a crafty person, I spent an inordinate amount of time in Rome looking at floors. I had my reasons. Tile mosaic floors have been a thing in Rome for millennia. And they are really, really cool.

The Romans began piecing together floors from bits and and pieces of marble from all parts of their empire thousands of years ago. Their floors, facings, and monuments were often made of pieces plundered from other cultures. Later civilizations, in turn, recycled the Roman marble for their palaces and churches.

Each color and/or type of marble has a different name, from travertine to porphry. They also wear down at different rates, so, as one of our guides pointed out, the floors become bumpy over time. You can tell the porphyry bits, for example, not only by their red color, but by the fact that they stick up a little higher than the other pieces.

And most of them are quilt patterns! I thought it would be fun to match some of them up. Who knew that Churn Dash was hundreds of years old? 🙂  I may be inspired to start piecing again…

Ancient Roman tile floor on Palatine Hill

Recycled Roman tile in San Crisogono Trastevere

Sawtooth nine-patch pattern at San Clemente

I couldn’t find this pattern, but you know it’s a quilt somewhere

Complex Sawtooth border at San Clemente

Churn Dash nine-patch at San Clemente

Gentleman’s Fancy nine-patch at San Crisogono

The House Jack Built four-patch design at San Crisogono Trastevere

Clearly an applique pattern with a Sawtooth border, San Crisogono

Mariners Compass variation, perhaps?

Wow applique at San Crisogono

Double wow at San Crisogono