When in Rome

Book excerpt: This “dashing chronicle” reveals what tourists have been visiting in Rome, from the era of the Roman Republic to contemporary times (The Independent). There is no place like Rome. Throughout its long, long history, its many changes in form and fortune, Rome has always been a tourist centre. In every age—Classical, Christian, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, Romantic, Modern—people have flocked to see its wonders. This is the story of what Rome’s visitors have looked at over the past two thousand years, the buildings, the statues, the paintings, the artifacts that have most impressed each generation of travellers from the time of the Roman Republic in the second century BC up to the present age of mass tourism. It is the history both of how Rome has changed with the centuries and how the taste of those who have visited the city has changed with it.