View of the monument erected by the Emperor Titus Vespasian restored for the new aqueducts of anion and Claudia 

Giovanni Battista Piranesi made this etching of the Ripetta port, brimming with the symbols of Rome's layered history, at a time when the city was rediscovering its classical roots. Dominating the scene, the steps—staircases reaching towards the sky—are the architectural motif that tells us of ambition, both spiritual and imperial. Think of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, or the monumental stairs leading to Roman temples: they recur throughout history as assertions of power. Here, these steps are juxtaposed with the everyday life of the port, a place of commerce, connecting Rome to the rest of the world. The steps, however, lead up to the church. This duality—between the sacred and the profane, the monumental and the mundane—is characteristic of Rome itself. It speaks to our subconscious longing for order and meaning, a visual echo resonating through time, embodying our collective aspiration towards something greater, a sense of the sublime, always just out of reach.