Rome and its towers
Italy is almost unique in the medieval Mediterranean in the way its urban life was, to quote from Stephen P. Bensch's 2002 book 'Barcelona & its Rulers, 1096-1291', 'dominated by tall towers, long knives and short tempers’.
Image: Detail from Urbis Romae by Pietro Ligorio, 1513-1583 - BSR Library, Prints, tapri-mis-089
