The real pity about the Vittorio Emanuele Monument is that it obscures views of the Capitoline Hill behind - once, in the days of Imperial Rome, the spiritual and political centre of the Roman Empire. Apart from anything else, this hill has contributed key words to the English language, including, of course, “capitol”, and “money”, which comes from the temple to Juno Moneta that once stood up here and housed the Roman mint. The Capitoline also played a significant role in medieval and Renaissance times: the flamboyant fourteenth-century dictator Cola di Rienzo, stood here in triumph in 1347, and was murdered here by an angry mob seven years later - a humble nineteenth-century statue marks the spot where he is said to have died. Michelangelo gave the piazza its present form, redesigning it as a symbol of Rome’s regeneration after the city was sacked in 1527.