In 1911, while reviewing the artists at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Rome for Adolfo Venturi’s L'Arte, Severi wrote: "I do not care for thematic painting and sculpture, for art that is overloaded, suffocated by the abstruse layering of any cerebral concept, but rather for art that reveals some depth of thought, vision, emotion, of simple research and observation in the artist." With these words, Aldo Severi revealed to his readers his preference for a sober and contemplative style of painting, capable of naturally translating the stimuli from the surrounding world.

His interest in a more intimate expression of landscape is fully evident in this painting, where the play of backlighting, the chromatic layering, and the alternations of light and shadow suggest a careful observation of Northern European painting and the principles of Symbolist art.

The view of Rome along the Tiber River is captured from a perspective full of charm, with the lights of the lampposts and the small window faintly visible on the southern tip of Tiber Island. On the right, beyond the arches of the Ponte Fabricio, the banks of Trastevere are already immersed in twilight. The Ponte Rotto, the ruin of the Pons Aemilius built in the 3rd century B.C., appears in the foreground on the left side of the painting with strong tonal effects.