Gezicht op het Forum Romanum in Rome
At the beginning of the 19th century Rome was a village with only a few ten thousand inhabitants. From time immemorial tourists and artists visited the city to admire its ancient archaeological monuments and triumphal arches. Cattle grazed in the forum, and wash was hung up to dry there. The barber lived in the basement of Trajan’s Column and the baker in the nearby Theatre of Marcellus.