Why is Rome so beautiful, in your opinion? Personally because it is easy, for example, that during my tour around the city it is easy to see, so close to each other, different testimonies of the very long history of the Eternal City. Try to think of this photo, for example, in which you will see the remains of the so-called Ara Coeli Insula which, as the name suggests, is located right next to the famous staircase that leads to the splendid Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli. Two different buildings, from two different eras, side by side.

These ancient walls of the imperial age, which can be dated around the 2nd century AD, tell us a story that spans the centuries and that starts from its first intended use: insula . What was it about? Well-preserved examples can be found in Ostia Antica, but imagine how the insula was the ancient equivalent of our condominiums. Multi-storey buildings, usually around five, in which on the ground floor there were usually shops and shops directly facing the street, inhabited by people of the lower-middle class. In short, the populace used to rent (sometimes really at their weight in gold) a minimum space that could include a single room, with a window , which served as a kitchen, bedroom and sitting room. A very sparing arrangement therefore, which made an insula very dangerous. After all, imagine living crowded together (you and your large family), in a single room, and imagine multiplying that room by five floors. This insula, for example, with its total 6 floors (of which only a few fragments remain), could hold about 380 people! On the ground floor, as was the custom of the time, commercial environments are recognizable. Shops often overlooked the street level, and it was not uncommon for the owners to live in the same building. And if a fire broke out, which was not uncommon, especially the inhabitants of the top floors had little chance of survival. These few ruins, therefore, seen by thousands of Romans every day, actually represent a cross-section of ancient Roman society. It is also interesting to note how it is not possible to see the entire facade of this building (completely different from a domus, for example, which was not rented but owned), as it sinks into the ground for another nine meters. But the surprises don't end...

In fact, between the brick walls, it is easy to notice some frescoes with a clear sacred character (such as Jesus and the tetramorphs above him under that small canopy). Fourteenth-century paintings that date back to the ancient 11th-century church of San Biagio de Mercatello, which was installed right inside the remains of the insula, actually exploiting some rooms of the ancient Roman building. This is a classic example of sacred recycling, as an ancient building was used as a place of worship. A monumental and very famous example is given by the temple of Antoninus and Faustina at the Roman Forum, as you can read here. Returning to us, as you can see, it is easy to understand how the church too, especially during eighteenth-century restorations, was dismembered and moved. Which is to say that, as is often visible in Rome, even the history and architecture were sometimes recycled...