Rome- its layer upon layer of history, it's conquests, destructions and reconstructions - is the city Sigmund Freud invokes in Civilization and its Discontents to describe the development of the psyche through time. The city is probably more complex. Walking through it, glimpses of other eras appear and disappear around a corner, out of the shadow on a narrow street, the piazza at night, the cats in the Borghese. It's delirious fun and a little unnerving. The romans seem oblivious to it all or totally comfortable living in the drift of time.