ROME ENTOMBED IN HER RUINS

Looking for Rome, in Rome, traveler?
You won’t find Rome in Rome herself!
Her walls, once proudly boasted as so impregnable,
are now mere skeletons, and the Aventine Hill resembles nothing more than a graveyard.

The Palatine Hill lies buried where it used to reign;
and the medallions, chipped away by Time,
look more like rubble from ancient battles
than the once-proud insignia of Rome.

Only the River Tiber remains intact.
Her tide, which once provided flowing water
for the city, now —with tears of grief— mourns her as a tomb.

Rome! Your grandeur and your beauty have fled!
Everything that was solid has dissolved away.
Only the transient remains and endures!