Here’s a view looking through an archway of the Portico of Octavia toward the Theater of Marcellus, with just a hint of the apartments built atop of the theater in medieval times. The elements on the left are of the scaffolding supporting restoration work on the portico.

What attracted me to this scene is the way it compresses space and time. Almost everywhere you walk amid the skewed street spaces, buildings, and monuments in the centro historico district, one encounters these layers of history so typical of Rome.