The times I visit Rome, there is consistently one thing I see in the city streets which leaves the strongest impression. It's not the beauty of St. Peter's or any of the other Renaissance architecture inside the Vatican. Nor is it the Colosseum or the nearby marble columns and arches throughout Palantine, left from days of ancient Rome.

Whenever I walk through this city, I smile each time I see the letters that brand its municipal property. Even today, manhole covers and iron lids protecting telephone circuitry are yet marked by the letters SPQR.