Why is the broad avenue leading to St. Peters called the Street of Reconciliation? What does the Via dei Fori Imperialiwhere the ancient imperial forums liehave to do with Mussolini? How does the name Piazza Navona disclose what is hidden under the square?
Via Roma tells Romes secrets one street at a time.
In this brilliant guide, Willemijn van Dijk takes readers across time and place as they wander along the roads of the ancient Italian capital. Street by street, fifty of them, van Dijk allows the stones to reveal their origins, their makers, the significance of their names, and the history they continue to echo. Caesars, popes, dictators, mafia dons, generals, philosophers, and artists. Architecture, ideas, romance, food, and intrigue. Rome is the eternal city to which all roads lead, and van Dijk unfolds the citys rich past through those roads.
Via Roma is an indispensable book for any and every inquisitive lover, and visitor, of the city along the Tiber.