Rome. Portrait of a City Hardcover – Illustrated, 13 July 2022

Possibly no book could ever do justice to the magnificence of Rome. This one tries though, and maybe even gets close to conveying something of the greatness of Rome. The book consists of photographs covering the years from 1839 to the present day, divided into chapters of several decades each. Many of the early photographs are by anonymous photographers, and even a great deal of the later ones are not by known photographers. There are masterpieces by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, & Alfred Eisenstaedt.The images start out in sepia or black & white, including an 1857 image of The Forum when it was used as a place for laundry to dry in the sunshine. An 1841 image of the Trevi fountain contrasts to a recent colour picture near the end of the book with the fountain used as a setting for a fashion show in July 2016, or the iconic 1960 picture from La Dolce Vita. Many of the early shots are enchanting: either lantern slide images enlarged, or hand coloured sepia pictures, such as the Pantheon in 1905, or Tivoli hill from the same year. St Peter's features repeatedly, and looks heavenly with a beam of light extending down into the dim interior in one image. There are many images of the celebrities of the Dolce Vita era, including Sophia Loren on her balcony in 1955, or Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday. A rare shot from 1890 shows Buffalo Bill at a cafe with two Indians in headdress. They were in town for a 'Wild West' show.There are plenty of people shots, of children playing in alleyways, colourful markets, a shoeshine boy, priests playing volleyball, fashionably dressed women, cats being fed in 1951, and a 1957 double page colour image of men playing football against a dramatic backdrop of ancient aqueducts. The book tries to include more than just the tourist sights, or the stereotypical images of vespas and pasta.Altogether, a fine tribute to an amazing city.

It is pure enjoyment

If you love Rome - you will love this beautiful book. If you don’t know Rome, you will get to know and love it from this book.

Bought as gift they loved this book

Beautiful book but packed awfully so book has a dent in it.

wonderful book on Rome for the lovers of this wonderful city.

A picturesque tour of Rome

This is my least favourite in the series. Way too many too similar images and locations, and too many pictures of the stars and supermodels, as if they (Taschen) hadn't have enough source material fo fill the book of that size. Of course there is still plenty of fantastic images inside, but, knowing the previous releases in the series, I just expected more diversity and wider scope.