Few cities present a more imposing exterior than Ancona, but it is only externally that it is either striking or beautiful; the streets are dark and narrow; and, with the exception of the Marina, which was laid out by order of Pius VI., the whole interior has a miserable character common to the coast towns of Italy. The magnificent Mole of Trajan, and the triumphal arch erected in his honour, are the objects of chief interest. The greatest part of the Mole still remains, a solid compact wall, formed of huge stones bound together by iron, and rising to a considerable height above the level of the sea; it serves now merely as a protection to the quays that are built within it. The New Mole, which is much lower, stands close to that of Trajan, and sustains a triumphal arch, of the Tuscan order, erected in honour of Clement XII., and raised in manifest rivalry of the one dedicated to the emperor, yet serving, at most, only as a foil to the beauties of the imperial monument. The arch of Trajan is still entire, though stripped of its metallic ornaments; the order is Corinthian ; the materials Parian marble. It was formerly decorated with statues, busts, and probably inferior ornaments of bronze, but these were all destroyed by the gothic invaders of Italy, whose avarice and rapacity defaced every building and monument in which either bronze or iron was found.