The Glorious Rome of Yesteryear

Giuseppe Vasi's Panorama of Rome, 1765.

I was trying to find a certain topic on Bl. Pius IX and came across where he celebrated his first Mass - Sant'Anna dei Falegnami.[1] That intrigued me. So, I searched for the church and I found out that the church was destroyed by the liberal-freemasons who usurped Rome in the 19th century in order to build a bigger road out to the developing suburbs. This led me to search for other demolished churches in Rome and there are a lot!! A lot of them convents and monasteries but I'm getting the impression that most of them were demolished during Rome's post-modernization and when archaeological findings became a big deal. When the freemasonic army of Garibaldi illegally usurped the Papal States there was swift action from the new "Italian government" at "modernizing" Rome. Suburbs needed to be built in order to house immigrants who would work in the new Roman factories (the fact that the new government brought industrialization to the City of Rome is repulsive), and so, by extension, roads needed to be built leading out to the new suburbs. These roads paved over ancient monasteries, convents, and churches.[2] The liberal-freemasons even took some churches out of the Forum (some thankfully still stand within the Forum)[3] in the name of "archaeological integrity," they also took the Stations of the Cross [erected by St. Leonard of Port Maurice] out of the Coliseum as well as a chapel which was built within the Coliseum. Even a bridge over the Tiber which led to a chapel on an island was done away with.  

Anyways, this reminded me of the sad fact that the Rome we see on the survey maps and panorama prints of Falda, Vasi, Piranesi and others are not exactly the same landscape we see today. Given the new roads and built up areas, as well as the depletion of parks, gardens, and countryside, it paints quite a different picture than the Rome of yesteryear. Also, the change in color of the buildings, "Ochre in its various warm tones characterized the urban landscape of Rome until the 1990s,"[4] although a few examples remain throughout the city of Rome. 

Rome is probably only 65% - 75% the same today maybe less. But I think everything is recorded and documented in such a way that it wouldn't  be hard to find out a good and efficient way of restoration for the grand, ancient, and eternal city of Rome and bring it back to its former glory: First, strip Rome down to Pope Alexander VII's first modernization and then build it up to how it looked in 1775 the age of the Grand Tours. 

[1] - Sant'Anna dei Falegnami: - The church Sant'Anna dei Falegnami

[2] - List of demolished churches: - List of Demolished Churches at the City of Rome

[3] - Another example (there are still churches inside the Roman Forum but this one sounded nice; Medieval frescoes from this church were just casually thrown into the trash heap by architects and their "archaeologists."): - The church of Santa Maria Liberatrice al Foro

[4] - Ten Years Ago Rome was Another City

Maybe one day Rome can be like this again.