In this book, Raffaele Panella presents the results of an interdisciplinary research project, co-ordinated by him, and sponsored and funded by the Athenaeum of Human Sciences, Arts and Environment of Sapienza, Università di Roma — ‘Rome the City of Forums: a new configuration of the archaeological and monumental area between Piazza Venezia and the Colosseum’. The project was concerned with a central space of both the ancient and modern city: from the slopes of the Palatine Hill, facing the Colosseum, to Piazza Venezia (including the imperial fora). In dealing with such an area — extraordinary, if not unique, in its complexity — P. adopted a new methodology in which archaeological, historical and urban questions were combined in a systematic approach, which demanded close co-operation from archaeologists (Faculty of Humanities), architects (Faculty of Architecture) and ‘communicators’ (Faculty of Communication Sciences).

The first two chapters deal with the ‘object’ of the research: the monumental remains of ancient Rome and their position in a key metropolitan area. The starting point is the archaeological remains (‘Archaeology and History’). In ‘Archaeological discoveries and their place in the city’, Clementina Panella, the co-ordinator of the archaeologists, considers the methodological questions surrounding the excavations, all on a ‘large scale’. Fundamental, in P.'s view, to the rôle of a director in an urban excavation is a consideration of the data — as a whole — to be gained from the fragments of urban landscapes unearthed and their conservation in the contemporary city. So extensive archaeological excavations should be included in any urban project where the interdisciplinary connection between archaeology, architecture and city planning contributes to the different needs of the city. But each complex covered by the project (Valle del Colosseo, Velia, Templum Pacis, Fori Imperiali) has quite specific characteristics, as Sabina Zeggio outlines (‘The areas of study: the ancient coming back to light’). In the second chapter (‘Ancient and Modern’), the focus is on the relationship between the remains and the modern city. As Orazio Carpenzano, an architect, underlines (‘Translation and project: the modern and the ancient in Rome’) an ‘architectonic project’ has to mediate between past and present. By establishing an interactive connection between memory and contemporary life, it articulates a language in which ruins should be accepted as such — and as fully part of an urban landscape where they have never been perceived as a whole. But language is communication and the city is a communicative text, as Paola Panarese writes in ‘The sense of place’, so it is also important to keep in mind what is being communicated — and to whom. From this point of view, the project aims to renovate the central area of Rome, rethinking the dynamics between the most significant finds, and to create a modern guide to a stratified city, comprehensible on three separate levels: by the expert, by the well-informed and by the casual tourist.

The last three chapters offer a more detailed account of the project, beginning with its genesis (‘Architecture and Archaeology’). Raffaele Panella outlines the initial impetus (in the late 1970s) to reconfigure the area, and (following recent excavations) the reconsideration of the original plans. In ‘A New Configuration’, P. encapsulates the key theme of the project, which has emerged in the previous chapters, the communication between the two parts of the same city (antique and modern). This theme replaces the traditional one of an archaeological park that — by contrast — is a separate element from the city (as is currently the case with the Roman Forum/Palatine Hill). And the other goal is that the connection is realized through an existing feature, the Via dei Fori Imperiali — to be replaced in this project by a viaduct. This is the unifying element of this area to be articulated in sections (the new ‘Piazza del Colosseum’, the Velia and the imperial fora), with the Piazza Venezia as the entryway to the fora and to the monumental centre of Rome with a network of service points, arranged alongside the fora and below the viaduct. The specific engineering works involved in the project are dealt with by Andrea Lucchini (‘The Viaduct of the Fora and other interventions’): the viaduct itself, the new structure built over the Templum Pacis to protect the archaeological remains and to restore them to road level, the Linea-C station at the Velia and the Augustan sacellum in the new Piazza del Colosseum. The last part of this volume is devoted to the cartography (‘Rome: Maps through History’): to the drafting of a much-needed overall map (Marco Fano, ‘The maps of Rome’), and to the methodological problems surrounding the use of archaeological maps from different sources, especially given the lack of any standardization (Emanuele Brienza, ‘Working on the archaeological map of Rome’).

In sum, this book represents an important contribution to the ongoing debate on the reconfiguration of the central archaeological area of Rome. New insights on how these archaeological sites should be viewed in the contemporary city are discussed: beyond the specific solutions, the strengths of this project are its aim to give a voice to all the parties involved and its recognition that ‘the modern/ancient oxymoron corresponds to the very essence of Rome’ (Renato Nicolini (14)). This is the fundamental point to keep in mind: working, especially in Rome, but also in any other inhabited place — we are part of a whole.