This book examines the results of the Second World War Allied bombing campaign on Palestrina and Rome, Italy, and the long-term impact of the war on the mountainside town and on the Barberini family's art collection including the Nile Mosaic.

Professor Teresa Fava Thomas, Ph.D. teaches at Fitchburg State University (Massachusetts). Her research interest is modern Italy. She has published: The Reluctant Migrants: Migration from the Italian Veneto, and American Arabists, as well as "Italian Diaspora in a Massachusetts Mill Town: Migration between Palestrina, Italy and Southbridge, Massachusetts" (2021).

1. The Nile Mosaic and the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia 2. Fascism, Romanità, and the Barberini: Struggle for Control of the Nile Mosaic 3. Fascism Comes to Palestrina: War on the Ground 4. The Italian Origins of Airpower Theory 5. The Reality of Bombing Palestrina 6. Monuments Men on the Road to Rome: Deane Keller and Fred Hartt 7. The Saint in the Rubble: to Rebuild or Restore Palestrina? 8. The Return Flight of the Nile Mosaic to the Sanctuary of Fortuna 9. Epilogue