Stone City, between natural and urban landscapes. Notes in the margin of a study project on porphyry

This essay paraphrases the title of a wonderful book by Ismail Kadarè1, though it has little of the spontaneous beauty of that literary prodigy, beyond the impressions of the visitor on exploring the landscapes of quarries, the town and the artifices of stone, excavated and used to pave hundreds of urban venues, from the smallest to the greatest, from a stairway landing to a plaza, even after the fall of the city of stone and the overbearing rise of its replacement, the city of concrete.