This is written in Portoferraio but harks back to our time in Rome.
At the top of the Capital Hill are the most stunning views of Rome. From the top of the hill, on the balcony beside the (hideous) Vittorio Emannuel Monument, you look towards St Peters, across mediaeval and Renaissance Rome. The domes loft above the palazzi and piazzas, with the green of secret gardens and the hills beyond.
Looking the other way, the vista is of ancient Rome. The view sweeps away towards the Colosseum. On one side there is Trajan's market, now overlooked by a mediaeval watchtower of the one of the feuding baronies who controlled Rome in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. To the right is the Palatine Hill, now a romantic site of pines and ruins of the Roman millennia. And directly beneath the Tabularium, the ancient archives of the Emperors which lies within the Hill, spread out the Forums, with the pillars and temples flanking the Sacred Way, centre of the European world for centuries.