Description

All Roads lead to Rome, so goes an old saying in praise of the grandeur and importance of a city which claimed for itself the title of caput mundi, And, by the same token, whatever road the visitor has taken to reach it, he can be sure that what he is about to be offered is an opportunity to admire and study an historical, artistic and monumental heritage of universal value. For Roman civilization was, together with that of Greece, the great cradle of Western Civilization. If the Greeks gave the best of themselves in literature, art, philosophy and the life of the spirit, the Romans, with their greater practi cal and rational sense, devoted themselves rather to po litical life, administration and the organization of the Empire. This difference in character is reflected in their works while those of the Greeks pursue an ideal of pure harmony and beauty, those of the Romans are imbued with a sense of grandeur, power and a more frankly utilitarian spirit. This, indeed, is the main characteristic of Roman architecture, whose fascination will inevita bly be exerted on visitors during their visits to the Ro man Forums, the Amphitheatres, the Basilicas and the triumphal arches. By a strange and uniquely privileged destiny, History conspired to ensure that, even after the fall of the Ro man Empire, in less glorious times than those of the Cae sars, Rome should preserve its role as a source of civili zation and as a cultural and moral centre of the world by becoming the capital of Christianity and the Apostolic See of the Successor of Peter. It was precisely due to the Papacy that the city revived during the Renaissance period and expressed a cultural and artistic activity which it had not had since the days of antiquity. The new splen dour of Rome found its greatest expression in the build ing of the new Basilica of St. Peter and the vast com plex of the Vatican Palaces with their incomparable masterpieces of Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo which represent some of the greatest artistic achievements of all time. The city of Rome is thus the witness par excellence to the millennial history of the West, and a thorough description of its notable monumental heritage would re quire a work that would fill a library in itself. The guide we here present to you has thus been conceived accord ing to criteria of conciseness and simplicity. Its aim is to provide the reader with all that is essential to enable him or her to tune into the living breath of History, the carnal fascination, that the city emanates from its every ruin, its every work of art.