Scenes from a Roman Century

An offbeat meander through the streets and histories of the great Italian capital, where the past is always present.

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Hollywood film stars, fascist assassins. Bombs on San Lorenzo, la dolce vita on Via Veneto. Baroque fountains, umbrella pines. Urban planning, unregulated house- building. After half a century living in Rome, David Lane turns his eye on events and streetscapes in the Eternal City over the past 100 years.


Scenes from a Roman Century begins with the 1924 murder of Giacomo Matteotti—the beginning of the end for interwar democracy—and ends with the organised crime and political violence of our own era. It sketches Rome’s growth under Mussolini’s dictatorship, and its fortunes during the Second World War; the economic miracle of the post- war decades; and Rome’s latest transformations through the turn of the millennium.


Lane sends readers meandering down the alleys, out towards the suburbs and to stand before the monumental architecture, capturing cultural and political moments from Rome’s past and present. He explores fascism’s material legacy across the city, terrorism and political extremism on the right and left, and the struggle to manage economic growth’s burdens—ugly urban sprawl, and the crush of mass tourism in the historic centre. As pilgrims descend for the 2025 jubilee declared by Pope Francis, what is next for this ever-changing city of history?