Many times destroyed, many times rebuilt, Rome never completely disappeared. The famous symbols of the Eternal City - the Colosseum, the Pantheon and Trajan's Column - have survived twenty centuries of pillage and invasions. Treasure hunters and scholars, archaeologists and artists, popes and poets adored, occupied and plundered them - and restored and embellished them as well. This is the story of how Rome's magnificence has endured it all.
