This classic guide to Rome begins at the Capitol, 'rising as it does like an island of peace out of the strident roar of the Piazza Venezia in the heart of the city, leading us backwards by degrees through the centuries to the time when Rome first emerged from a collection of pastoral villages set upon seven hills... And at night it is not so difficult to picture the stately ranks of colonnaded temples crowned with gilded statues and the basilicas rearingtheir great bulk against the night sky, or to imagine the faint glow of the sacred fire warming the marbles of the Temple of Vesta, and above them all the vast palace of the emperors on the Palatine overshadowing the whole scene,as it then dominated the civilized world.' From this seductive start, the glories of Rome are unrolled; Masson's home was in the grounds of the Villa Pamphilj, on the outskirts of Rome, during the years when she was writing this book, and she knew Rome intimately. She has been fortunate in her reviser John Fort, resident in Rome for thirty years - who has brought this latest edition up to date.