The nature of Italian cities often leads us to believe that they have always been where they are today, frozen in time as if they were inside a crystal display case. Yet over a 2,000 year period, these cities were born, like primroses in spring, from a glow of life in an ancient time. 

The layering of time, eras, wars and generations shaped small towns–often tiny clusters of houses or military encampments–and transformed them into modern urban machines capable of housing tens or even hundreds of thousands of inhabitants as early as Roman times.