In front of the Arch of Constantine beside the Colosseum and from a 19th century photograph by Giacomo Brogi. Situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill, the arch was erected by the Roman Senate in 312 and dedicated in 315 in time to commemorate decennalia of Constantine's reign and his victory over the then reigning emperor Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312. The largest Roman triumphal arch at 21 metres in height, 25.9 metres in width and 7.4 metres heigh, it spans the Via triumphalis which is the route taken by the emperors when they entered the city in triumph starting at the Campus Martius, through the Circus
Maximus, and around the Palatine Hill; immediately after the Arch of
Constantine the procession would turn left at the Meta Sudans and march
along the Via sacra to the Forum Romanum and on to the Capitoline Hill,
passing through both the Arches of Titus and Septimius Severus. Though dedicated to Constantine, much of the decorative material incorporated earlier work from the time of the emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius by reusing several major reliefs from 2nd century imperial monuments earning it the derisive nickname of Cornacchia di Esopo Aesop's Crow. During
the Middle Ages the Arch of Constantine was incorporated into one of
the family strongholds of ancient Rome, as shown in the painting by
Herman van Swanevelt, here. Works of restoration were first carried out
in the 18th century with the last excavations taking place in the
late 1990s, just before the Great Jubilee of 2000. The arch served as
the finish line for the marathon athletic event for the 1960 Summer
Olympics.
Inside the Colosseum in 1890 and today. The Colosseum was used to host gladiatorial shows as well as a variety of other events called munera, provided by private individuals rather than the state. Another popular type of show was the animal hunt, or venatio which utilised a great variety of wild beasts. Battles and hunts were often staged amid elaborate sets with movable trees and buildings occasionally on a huge scale; Trajan is said to have celebrated his victories in Dacia in 107 with contests involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days. During lunch intervals, executions ad bestias would be staged. Those condemned to death would be sent into the arena, naked and unarmed, to face the beasts of death which would literally tear them to pieces. Other performances would also take place by acrobats and magicians, typically during the intervals. During the early days of the Colosseum, ancient writers recorded that the building was used for naumachiae- simulated sea battles as during the inaugural games held by Titus in AD 80. There is also an account of a re-enactment of a famous sea battle between the Corcyreans and Corinthians. However, it is unclear how the arena could have been waterproofed, nor would there have been enough space in the arena for the warships to move around.
The Pantheon showing the two bell towers by Bernini and after their removal in 1883.
Rome was the showpiece of a multifaceted program of ideological archaeology that involved the clearing, isolation, and restoration of certain key monuments such as the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis. It also included projects that coordinated archaeology with new construction, such as the creation of the parade route of the via dell’Impero (now the via dei Fori Imperiali) through the fora of the Caesars. The government financed exhibitions and the creation of museums that highlighted the new discoveries and strengthened the connection between romanità and fascist policy. Finally, the ambitious fascist construction and urban renewal program led to chance archaeological discoveries, such as the republican temples of the Largo Argentina in central Rome, that the regime was flexible enough to preserve and fit into its propaganda program.
Dyson (177)
Although the road was touted as a celebration of the glories of ancient Rome, as shown above, its
construction entailed the systematic demolition of over 40,000 square
yards of one of the most densely populated areas of Rome, obliterating
ancient, mediæval
and Renaissance structures, including five churches and popular
tenements that housed 746 of Rome's poorest families. The via dei Fori
Imperiali hid over 84% of the recently excavated forums of Nerva and
Trajan; of
the areas excavated, a great deal of data has been lost. Records at the
Musei Capitolini noted that many of the objects found were stored in
crates in the vaults of Museo della Civiltà Romana, but little
associated data was recorded about the exact location and context of the
objects, meaning that huge amounts of information that could be
inferred is now irrecoverable whilst completely changing the landscape and character of the heart of Rome and slicing
the Fora area in two. General outrage is often the reaction of modern
archaeologists and scholars when discussing it. Perhaps the biggest
issue of all was that the now four-lane, heavily trafficked road carried
an extremely heavy load of motor vehicle traffic straight through the
Roman Forum area, whose exhaust fumes and vibrations continue to do
immeasurable damage to the surrounding ancient Roman monuments. After
numerous failed efforts by academics and citizen’s groups to convince
the Roman city government to attempt to undo what Mussolini government
created by removing the road, the Mayor of Roma Ignazio Marino closed
the southern part of the road 1937 to
commemorate the 15th anniversary of the March on Rome. The operation
was coordinated by Ugo Monneret de Villard.
Standing in front of the
bronze statue of Gaius Julius Caesar, installed during the
fascist period in the 1930s on Via dei Fori Imperiali just in
front of ruins of Foro di Cesare, and as it appeared to American GIs
during the war. Caesar decided to construct a large forum bearing his name which was formally inaugurated in 46 BCE as an extension to the Roman Forum, although it was probably incomplete at this time and was finished later by Augustus. The Forum was used as a replacement venue to the Roman Forum for public affairs as well as government; it was also designed as a celebration of Caesar's power as he placed in front of his forum a temple devoted to Venus Genetrix, enforcing Caesar's claim to be descended from Venus through Aeneas. A statue of Caesar himself riding Bucephalus, the celebrated horse of Alexander the Great, was placed in front of the temple, to symbolise absolute power. The location of the site itself indicated his intention not to be far from the central power, represented in the Curia, seat of the Senate. Mussolini decided to construct a parade route between
his residence in the Palazzo Venezia and the Colosseum. It
would pass by the ruins of the fora erected by Julius Caesar, Augustus,
and Trajan, monuments that had been buried under centuries of debris
and obscured by later building additions. These ancient structures were
rapidly cleared down to their imperial levels and restored in such a way
as to provide an appropriate backdrop to fascist martial displays. In
the process more than five thousand housing units were destroyed, and
214,000 cubic feet of earth were removed. The
excavations were conducted in great haste, few records were kept, and
in most cases no publications of the finds ever appeared. Some of the
remains were reburied as the parade way and surrounding parks—complete
with statues of “good” emperors—were built over them. The example of the
imperial fora would return as a major source of controversy in the
postwar years. 
Mussolini before the bronze statue of Nerva with me and Drake Winston in front of those of Augustus and Trajan
Trajan's Column in an etching by Giovanantonio Dosio from 1569 on the left and the wife at Trajan's Forum
With Drake Winston beside Trajan's Column, commemorating Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate and is located in what was Trajan's Forum, built near the Quirinal Hill. Completed in 113, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which artistically represents the wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106). Standing at 98 feet in height, (115 feet including its large pedestal), its shaft is made from a series of twenty colossal Carrara marble drums, each weighing about 32 tons, with a diameter of just over a dozen feet. Inside the shaft, a spiral staircase of 185 steps provides access to a viewing platform at the top. The 620-foot frieze winds around the shaft 23 times. Trajan’s ashes were buried in a chamber at the base of the Column- the firs to be buried within the city's boundaries . The ground level of the Forum, which is a centre of life for Romans, is where the earthly remains of Trajan are buried. The Column from the base goes up, taking us through Trajan’s triumph in the Dacian wars, and (as originally constructed) finishes with a statue of Trajan above the forum. Thus the symbolism seems to present how Trajan’s earthly remains remain in the Forum with the Roman people, whilst his conquests ascend him up into the heavens. The Catholic church desecrated the statue in the Middle Ages and on December 4, 1587 replaced him with a bronze figure of St. Peter, which unfortunately remains to this day. The column was originally flanked by two libraries, which may have contained Trajan's scroll-written despatches from his Roman-Dacian Wars. Filippo Coarelli suggests that such scrolls are the basis both of the column's design and its spiraling, sculpted narrative. The column shows 2,662 figures, and 155 scenes; Trajan himself appears on the column 58 times.
The
Plutei of Trajan (Plutei Traiani), carved stone balustrades built for
Trajan. They are on display inside the Curia Julia on the Forum Romanum
today, but are not part of the original structure.
In front of the ruins of the temple of Mars Ultor at what had been the Forum of Augustus. Octavian had vowed to build a temple honouring Mars during the battle of Philippi in 42 BCE. After winning the battle, with the help of Mark Antony and Lepidus, Octavian had avenged the assassination of his adoptive father Julius Caesar. Under the name Augustus he planned for the temple to be built in a new forum named after himself. Augustus used social propaganda by continuing Julius Caesar's will to create a Temple to Mars Ultor "greater than any in existence", by placing it within the Temple, linking himself to his divine adopted father, obtaining a strong link to the Roman population through their love for the deceased dictator. The land the Forum was to be built on was already owned by Augustus himself although the initial plans called for more space than he had- Suetonius states that Augustus did not want to take the houses of the nearby owners by force but such land issues, as well as numerous architectural mishaps, prolonged construction. The incomplete forum and its temple were inaugurated forty years after they were first vowed, in 2 BCE. Archaeological data suggests the systematic dismantling of the structures in the first half of the 6th century, probably because it was seriously damaged in an earthquake or during the wars. The Forum of Augustus was among the first of the great public buildings of Rome which disappeared that also explains the rapid loss of the memory of its original name. 
With Drake Winston
During the war and today
Hitler Youth parading past the Colosseum on September 28, 1936.
At the Forum Romanum looking towards the Capitoline
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The Curia Julia in the Roman Forum, the seat of the imperial Senate, covered by scaffolding during its renovation and me at the site beside the arch of Severus. The Curia Julia is one of a handful of Roman structures that survive mostly intact due to its conversion into the basilica of Sant'Adriano al Foro in the 7th century and several later restorations. However, the roof, the upper elevations of the side walls and the rear façade are modern and date from the remodeling of the deconsecrated church, in the 1930s. Mussolini inaugurated the newly-restored Curia Julia which the Italian government acquired on July 10, 1923
from the Collegio di Spagna for approximately 16,000 Lire. In his Res
Gestae, Augustus writes of the project: “I built the Senate House...
with the power of the state entirely in my hands by universal consent, I
extinguished the flames of civil wars, and then relinquished my
control, transferring the Republic back to the authority of the Senate
and the Roman people. For this service I was named Augustus by a decree
of the Senate”. In fact, this relinquishment of power was truer in word
than in deed; the construction of the Curia Julia coincided with the end
of Republican Rome.
The Arch of Titus
Visiting again with my parents and little Drake Winston in front of a copy in Munich
The image used on the Israeli coat of arms is based on the depiction of the menorah on the Arch of Titus.
The Circus Maximus and the site today.
The
Theatre of Marcellus, the largest and most important theatre in Ancient
Rome which could originally hold between 11,000 and 20,000 spectators.
Beside it are the remains of the Temple of Apollo and the porticus
Octaviae behind.
An
American column snaking Piazza del Popolo before pressing north in
pursuit of the retreating German armies, and the wife at the same spot.
The piazza lies inside the northern gate in the Aurelian Walls, once the
Porta Flaminia of ancient Rome, and now called the Porta del Popolo.
For centuries, the Piazza del Popolo was a place for public executions,
the last of which took place in 1826. The wife is standing at the base
of the obelisk of Sety I (later erected by Rameses II) from Heliopolis.
Three sides of the obelisk were carved during the reign of Sety I and
the fourth side, under Rameses II. The obelisk, known as the Flaminio
Obelisk or the Popolo Obelisk, is the second oldest and, at 24 metres
high (36 m. including its plinth) one of the tallest obelisks in Rome.
It had been brought to Rome in 10 BCE by order of Augustus and
originally set up in the Circus Maximus. It was re-erected at the piazza
by Domenico Fontana in 1589 as part of the urban plan of Sixtus V.
Another
arch in the Forum Romanum is the white marble Arch of Septimius
Severus, dedicated in 203 to commemorate the Parthian victories of
Emperor Septimius Severus and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, in the
two campaigns against the Parthians of 194/195 and 197-199. After the
death of Septimius Severus, his sons Caracalla and Geta were initially
joint emperors. Caracalla had Geta assassinated in 212; Geta's memorials
were destroyed and all images or mentions of him were removed from
public buildings and monuments. Accordingly Geta's image and
inscriptions referring to him were removed from the arch.
The Largo Argentina in 1929 and at the site 2016.
The
Arcus Argentariorum (Arch of the money-changers). It is a widespread misconception that it is a
triumphal arch, but without
curves it more resembles an architrave. Its actual purpose is unknown,
but the most probable scenario is that it formed a monumental gate
where the vicus Jugarius entered the Forum Boarium. As the dedicatory
inscription says, it was commissioned not by the state or emperor, but
by the local money-changers (argentarii) and merchants (negotiantes), in
honour of Septimius Severus and his family. The top was possibly once
decorated with statues of the imperial family, now long gone. It was
finished in 204 CE and its dedicatory inscription is framed by two bas-reliefs
representing Hercules and a genius. The
figures of Caracalla's brother, father in law and wife on the passage
panels and on the banners on the outside, and their names on the
dedicatory inscription, were chiselled out after Caracalla seized sole
power and assassinated them. These sacrificial scenes gave rise to the
popular but incorrect saying about the arch that
Tra la vacca e il toro, troverai un gran tesoroThis led past treasure-hunters to drill many holes in it, which are still visible. Above the main reliefs, are smaller panels with Victories or eagles holding up victors' wreaths, and beneath them more sacrificial scenes. The external decoration of the pillars includes soldiers, barbarian prisoners, military banners (with busts of the imperial family) and a now damaged figure in a short tunic.
(Between the cow and the bull - i.e., within the arch - you'll find a great treasure).
Hitler and Mussolini appreciating the supposed representation of Pax, the goddess of peace, on the east side of the altar under the direction of Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. The reconstruction of the Ara Pacis being impossible in situ without
the demolition of the Palazzo Peretti, Mussolini then decided to
rebuild the monument, but next to the Mausoleum of Augustus, along the
Tiber. Thus would be created a memorial to the emperor Augustus. Between
June and September 1938, simultaneously with the excavation, so began
the work of the pavilion, cement and glass, designed to accommodate and
protect the Ara Pacis, but by changing its direction by 90 °. On the
side of the base of the pavilion, Mussolini had engraved the Latin text
of Res Gestae Augustus. The pavilion was built in less than an hundred
days. On September 23, closing day of the Augustan year, Mussolini
inaugurated the monument, a symbol of Imperial Rome, to show that the
Roman civilisation remains alive and that the myth of Rome survives in
modern Italy, where the fascist regime carries in its height the
celebration of unity and Romanism.
Mussolini had stated that “I monumenti millenari della nostra storia devono giganteggiare nella necessaria solitudine [The thousands-of- years-old monuments of our history must grow more magnificent in their required isolation"] Important Roman structures were thus cleaned of later “accretions” as part of the notorious sventramento that is now criticised by urban historians for its destruction of the later historical context of the Roman monuments. The most ambitious of these projects was the clearing of the Mausoleum of Augustus near the Tiber. All post- Roman remains were removed from the tomb itself, and the postclassical buildings that surrounded it were levelled to create a new piazza framed by buildings replete with fascist visual and verbal propaganda. The importance of the tomb was enhanced by the reconstruction of the Augustan Ara Pacis at a new location between the mausoleum and the Tiber. Mussolini closely identified with Augustus, and the dedication of the complex in 1938 became one of the great propaganda events in the history of his regime.
Dyson (177-178) In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts
In
1902, the German scholar Eugen Petersen proposed a reconstruction of
the partially excavated monument after studying photos of fragments from
a number of European museums. In 1937–1938, Mussolini had the rest of
the Ara Pacis excavated; then he had the monument reconstructed
following Petersen’s model—all to celebrate the Romanitá of the
Fascist regime. In 1938, Mussolini had a protective building for the
Altar built, as it had been reconstructed by Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo,
near the Mausoleum of Augustus (moving the Altar in the process) as part
of his attempt to create an ancient Roman "theme park" to glorify
Fascist Italy. During
the war, the Ara Pacis was protected by sandbags. Then successive
restorations postwar allowed to reconstruct almost in its entirety.
Today, a new museum, designed by architect Richard Meier, is the setting
for the Ara Pacis.
All post- Roman remains were removed from the tomb itself, and the postclassical buildings that surrounded it were levelled to create a new piazza framed by buildings replete with fascist visual and verbal propaganda. The importance of the tomb was enhanced by the reconstruction of the Augustan Ara Pacis at a new location between the mausoleum and the Tiber. Mussolini closely identified with Augustus, and the dedication of the complex in 1938 became one of the great propaganda events in the history of his regime.
Dyson (178)
The Porticus of Octavia built by Augustus in the name of his sister, Octavia Minor, sometime after 27 BCE in place of the Porticus Metelli. The colonnaded walks of the portico enclosed the temples of Jupiter Stator and Juno Regina, next to the Theatre of Marcellus. It burned down in 80 CE and was restored, probably by Domitian, and again after a second fire in 203 by Septimius Severus and Caracalla. It was adorned with foreign marble and contained many famous works of art mentioned in Pliny's ''Natural History''. The structure was damaged by an earthquake in 442 CE, when two of the destroyed columns were replaced with an archway which still stands.
The
Arch of Drusus, close to the First Mile of the Appian Way and next to
the Porta San Sebastiano. It is now generally agreed that it has nothing to do
with Nero Claudius Drusus, the conqueror of the Germans. Some versions
have the arch being constructed as part of a spur added to the Aqua
Marcia by Caracalla in 211-216 AD to take water from that aqueduct to
Caracalla’s new baths. However, it appears more likely that the arch
pre-dated the aqueduct and that the aqueduct was conveniently routed over
the top of the arch. Only the central part of this arch is now
standing, but it was originally triple, or at least with projections on
each side, although never finished. It is built of travertine, faced
with marble, and on each side of the archway are columns of Numidian
marble with white marble bases. The archway is 7.21 metres high. The
aqua Antoniniana, the branch of the Aqua Marcia, ran over this arch, but
the brick-faced concrete that is visible on the top seems to belong to a
later period. The arch may possibly be the arch of Trajan.
Mussolini, Muñoz on his left, in the Piazza Bocca della Verità, Arch of Janus in the background, 1930
The
so-called Arch of Janus, the only quadrifrons triumphal arch preserved
in Rome, across a crossroads in the Velabrum-Forum Boarium. It was built
in the early 4th century, using spolia, possibly in honour of
Constantine I or Constantius II. Its current name probably dates from
the Renaissance or later, and was not used to describe it in classical
antiquity. The name is derived from the structure's four-fronted,
four-arched configuration; relating this to the four-faced version of
Janus (Ianus Quadrifons), as well as to actual Janus-related structures
mentioned in historic descriptions of ancient Rome.
The
mausoleum of Hadrian, built on the right bank of the Tiber, between 134
and 139 CE. Originally the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a
garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year
after his death in Baiae in 138, together with those of his wife Sabina,
and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138.
Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed
here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217. The urns
containing these ashes were probably placed in what is now known as the
Treasury room deep within the building. The popes converted the
structure into a castle- Castel Sant'Angelo- beginning in the 14th
century; Pope Nicholas III connected the castle to St Peter's Basilica
by a covered fortified corridor called the Passetto di Borgo. The
fortress was the refuge of Pope Clement VII from the siege of Charles
V's Landsknechte during the Sack of Rome (1527), in which Benvenuto
Cellini describes strolling the ramparts and shooting enemy soldiers.
The
wife and I on the Ponte Sant'Angelo, formerly the Pons Aelius,
completed in 134 CE by Hadrian to span the Tiber, from the city centre
to his newly constructed mausoleum. The bridge is faced with travertine
marble and spans the Tiber with five arches, three of which are Roman.
Trevi Fountain, immortalised by Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita, is Rome’s most famous fountain. The baroque bonanza was designed by Nicola Salvi in 1732 and depicts Neptune’s chariot being led by Tritons with sea horses – one wild, one docile – representing the various moods of the sea. The water comes from one of the city’s earliest aqueducts and the name ‘Trevi’ refers to the ‘tre vie’ (three roads) that converge at the fountain.
The
Cordonata during the fascist era and today, designed by Michelangelo to
gradually ascend the Capitoline Hill to reach the high piazza, so that
the Campidoglio resolutely turned its back on the Roman Forum that it
had once commanded. It was built to be wide enough for horse riders to
ascend the hill without dismounting. The railings are topped by the
statues of two Egyptian lions in black basalt at their base and the
marble renditions of Castor and Pollux at their top shown here where
on 7 April 1926 an upper-class 10 from a hall at the Campidoglio in the centre of historic Rome, where, ironically, he had just inaugurated an international surgeons' conference. Her bullet merely nicked the bridge of her target's nose and Mussolini took the opportunity to spin the affair in his favour by being photographed shortly afterwards continuing his work and with just a small facial plaster to hint at his brush with death. Indeed, by 4.30 p.m., still sporting his bandage, Mussolini was orating to a meeting of party officials and government workers. In a dramatic peroration, soon adopted as one of the slogans of the regime, he urged the need for all to ' "Live dangerously". Indeed, I say to you like an old soldier: "If I go forward, follow me. If I retreat, kill me. If I die, avenge me.'"Richard Bosworth (218) Mussolini
Campidoglio during the war and me turn of the century. It was Benito Mussolini who ordered the paving completed to Michelangelo's design in 1940. On the right is Drake Winston where the statue of Marcus Aurelius was kept hidden.
The statue of Marcus Aurelius in safe-keeping during the war and today whilst a copy remains outside
Inside the Capitoline museum under reliefs from the lost arch of Marcus Aurelius, with that on the right as it appears coloured on the cover of Ritchie Pogorzelski's Der Triumph Siegesfeiern im antiken Rom. Ihre Dokumentation auf Ehrenbögen in Farbe. On the right is an attempt to recreate Cicero's visage from his bust at the museum.
The
Column of Marcus Aurelius, a Doric column featuring a spiral relief
built in honour of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and modelled on
Trajan's Column. The
spiral picture relief tells the story of Marcus Aurelius’ Danubian wars
waged by him from 166 to his death. The story begins with the army
crossing the river Danube, probably at Carnuntum. A Victory separates
the accounts of two expeditions. The exact chronology of the events is
disputed; however, the latest theory states that the expeditions against
the Marcomanni and Quadi in the years 172 and 173 are in the lower half
and the successes of the emperor over the Sarmatians in the years 174
and 175 in the upper half. In spite of many similarities to Trajan’s
column above, the style is entirely different, a forerunner of the
dramatic style of the 3rd century and closely related to the triumphal
arch of Septimius Severus, erected soon after. The figures’ heads are
disproportionately large so that the viewer can better interpret their
facial expressions. The images are carved less finely than at Trajan’s
Column, through drilling holes more deeply into the stone, so that they
stand out better in a contrast of light and dark. As villages are burned
down, women and children are captured and displaced, men are killed,
the emotion, despair, and suffering of the "barbarians" in the war, are
represented acutely in single scenes and in the figures’ facial
expressions and gestures, whilst the emperor is represented as
protagonist, in control of his environment. The symbolic language is
altogether clearer and more expressive, if clumsier at first sight, and
leaves a wholly different impression on the viewer to the whole artistic
style of 100 to 150 as on Trajan’s column.
The Capitoline Museum has changed since the war
The Dying Gaul in slightly less exalted surroundings and little Drake Winston before a copy at the Nazi-era Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke München
Beside Constantine the Great colossus fragments at the Palazzo dei Conservatori, part of the Capitoline Museum
The Temple of Hadrian on the Campus Martius in Rome built by Hadrian's
adoptive son and successor Antoninus Pius in 145 CE and now incorporated
into a later building in the Piazza di Pietra (Piazza of Stone – derived
from use of the temple's stones to build the piazza). It was once
erroneously known as the Temple of Neptune. One wall of the cella
survives, together with eleven of the 15-metre-high Corinthian columns
from the external colonnade, on a four metre high peperino base. The fixing
holes for its original marble covering can still be seen. The building
was octastyle and had 15 columns on each long side (four have been lost
from the surviving side). Inside the bank the remains of the
non-apsidal naos can be seen, once covered by a barrel vault supported
on columns between which were battle-trophies. The base of the columns
had reliefs of personifications of the provinces of the empire. 
The Stadium of Domitian, also known as the Circus Agonalis, was located north of the Campus Martius and commissioned around 80 by Emperor Titus as a gift to the people of Rome to be used mostly for athletic contests. Today the Piazza Navona sits over the interior arena of the Stadium with the sweep of buildings that embrace the Piazza incorporating the Stadium's original lower arcades. In the centre is the Fountain of the Four Rivers with an Egyptian obelisk that had been brought to Rome by the Emperor Caracalla.
The Spanish Steps at the turn of the century and today
Santa Maria in Cosmedin before the war and today. The church is the home to la Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth), famously shown in the 1953 movie Roman Holiday starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.
The Pyramid of Cestius beside the Porta San Paolo, standing at a fork between two ancient roads, the Via Ostiensis and another road that ran west to the Tiber along the approximate line of the modern Via della Marmorata. Due to its incorporation into the city's fortifications as part of the Aurelian walls, it is today one of the best-preserved ancient buildings in Rome.
