Excerpts from the book

 
INTRODUCTION
Rome has been designed and redesigned many times, but it is not a planned city. Unlike Haussmann’s Paris, Rome has never been subdued to a single overarching vision or plan of organization. This is not to say that Rome is “decentered,” as postmodern theory would suggest>...read more

Excerpt from Chapter 1:
TIBER ISLAND AND THE ANCIENT PORT
A southwest wind blew out of Africa. Behind it, at a slower pace, came Africa itself. The breeze cooled as it crossed the ancestral Mediterranean and picked up moisture. Slipping over the Apennines, which the African plate in its slow northeastward drift was heaving up, the clouds opened...read more

Excerpt from Chapter 8:
THE SURVIVAL OF HISTORY
The center of power established in the last decade of the sixteenth century remained fixed until 1870. In that year Italy achieved political union under a king who chose the Quirinal Palace as the seat of national government. Before the capture of Rome by nationalist forces, the reigning pope, Pius IX, moved into the Vatican Palace, where he and his successors remained under self-imposed house arrest until 1929...read more