THE SIGHTS OF ROME

 

Not Built in a Day: Exploring the Architecture of Rome is a walking-tour guide, meant to be read on site in Rome in the presence of the architecture being discussed.  The print edition of the book is quite long (400 pages), and its length precluded the use of photographs to illustrate the points being made in the text.  It is the purpose of these webpages to supply those photographs, so that readers at home (and also readers using electronic devices such as Kindles or I-Pads on site in Rome) may see exactly what the text presumes they are looking at.  Currently, 18 of the book's 178 essays are included here (both the current entries and the entries still to come are listed in the INDEX).  Each architectural entry in the book is given its own webpage, and corresponding quotations from the text have been placed next to each illustration.

 

The overall organization of these pages mimics the organization of the book, so use of the "GO TO NEXT ENTRY" and "GO TO PREVIOUS ENTRY" buttons at the bottom of each page will produce the same entry order as in the printed text.  At any time, the "INDEX " button on the navigation bars at the top and bottom of each page may be used to jump to the alphabetical index, which may then be used to navigate to specific entries.  New entries are currently being added weekly, with the goal of ultimately illustrating the entire printed text.

 

To begin the walking tours, click on any of the individual tour links below, or click on the "Begin Walking Tour" button on the navigation bar at the bottom of the page.

 

 

 

The Twelve Not Built in a Day Walking Tours

 

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As shown on the map above, Not Built In A Day divides the city into twelve separate walking tours, beginning at the center of the town (the Piazza Venezia) and then moving clockwise around the city within the ancient walls starting with the Tiber bend area.  The titles of the tours (listed below) reflect the predominant architectural character of the area being covered (ancient, medieval, Baroque, and so forth);  however, the titles are not meant to imply that sites from other eras along the route are excluded.

Each tour begins with a short introduction describing the area of the city to be explored.  The illustrative etchings accompanying the introductions are by Giuseppe Vasi, who in the mid-1700s produced some 200 views of Rome that included almost all of the city's famous buildings, monuments, fountains, and piazzas.