The Companion Guide to Rome (Companion Guides)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