It’s strange to see an ancient monument under construction again. We’ve spent so much time romanticizing ruin here in Rome. Such poetic decay of Piranesi etchings and John Keats’ verse are standards in Rome, but one has the opposite experience when looking at the ongoing work at the mausoleum of Augustus.

Restoration can be just as poetic, and I’m reminded of Aeneas peeking over the hill in Aeneid 1 and getting a look at the initial constructions of Carthage. Even though all readers know the ultimate fate of Carthage, the energy of creation, production, and collaboration draws us in and makes us marvel.