"𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦 . . . 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 . . . 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦."

My aunt said this to me of her last trip to Rome. I’ve thought a lot about this and wondered what it must be like to live permanently in a place that all the world feels belongs to the history of civilization. While I stand with my phone gawking at the Colosseum the Roman sitting at the bus stop doesn’t even glance at it. He knows it’s there and that’s enough. Same goes for every building everywhere here, you see a fragment of Ancient Rome in a wall or an apartment building with broken pillars strewn on its grounds and this somehow feels to me like it needs documenting and to the Roman it's just always been there. I think what my aunt was getting at was the difference between a modern Roman and all of us. They can’t forever be in awe of their surroundings and yet they know that we all came to do exactly that. ⁣

“𝘛𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘥”

— H.V. Morton

A Traveler in Rome, 1957⁣

Today I went to the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. The gleaming white, way-too-big and monstrously clunky monument to the short lived Italian Kingdom (1861-1946). Partly my distaste for the building is that it is frankly not old enough, but more than that it abuts forcefully onto Capitoline Hill nudging the more ancient sites to one side. And then there is the problem of what this monument covers up, the Temple of Jupiter for one, or what was left of it. It also stands for my least favorite part of Roman history, where they turned nationalistic and ultimately Fascists. ⁣

But I had never been inside before, and I could have lived happily without it but I read of a new-ish elevator that takes you to the top of the monument and there you can see Ancient Rome from a vantage point no one had before. So that’s why I went and these are my pictures from way up there.