This is an image of the ancient forum in Rome, Italy.

This image is significant to me because one of the biggest lessons that I learned during my time studying abroad in Rome is that there isn’t anything ‘ancient’ about the ancient Rome that people would see around them in the city. I learned in my sociology course on Rome as a modern city that the physical landscape of Rome, and especially of the ‘ancient’ parts were shaped with a political purpose. Almost all of the parts of ancient Rome that I could see were excavated and reconstructed. So, if parts of the temple and the forum were reconstructed, then they’re not exactly ancient still, at least not physically. It is actually the idea of Rome as ancient and it as an eternal city that is significant. This knowledge completely changed my perspective of Rome, and if anything, made the city even more interesting because the whole place is a contradiction of old and new that is blended together.