When in Ancient Rome, Caesar the day. Nowhere - at least in Europe, not even in Athens - is history so generously woven into the fabric of a city.

Wherever you go in the multilayered historic centre of Rome, the Ancient World jostles for place with papal, Renaissance, Risorgimento, Fascist and modern Rome.

We are drawn to the Eternal City because it showcases an Ancient World that is so close yet so distant from our own. And it does so without fanfare. From the Colosseum to the Pantheon, none of its grand sights needs hype.

In such a historic city new discoveries are a regular happening. Last December, for example, it was revealed that a stone coffin said to contain the remains of St Paul had been unearthed beneath the floor of San Paolo, the largest basilica after St Peter’s in the Italian capital.

Of course, if you are a first-timer in Rome, you must see its established headline acts: the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Palatine, Circus Maximus, the Baths of Caracalla and Castel Sant’Angelo, and take short trips out of town to Ostia Antica and Hadrian’s Villa.

When in Rome, one way to experience these magnificent sights outside tourist hours is to attend one of the many cultural events that form part of Rome’s extensive summer programme, Estate Romana. Romeo and Juliet, Nabuccoand Turandot all feature in the summer schedule of ballet and opera at the Baths of Caracalla. In July Sonic Youth offer more contemporary fare at the Roman theatre in Ostia Antica and Genesis play a free concert at the Colosseum.

Restoration work on the Great Hall of Trajan’s Markets was completed late last year and it is now open to the public. The markets feature in Rome’s Notte Bianca (White Nights) programme, when historic places are beautifully illuminated and open for guided tours on summer evenings.

For Roman antiquities the Capitoline Museum is particularly strong on sculpture. Do not miss its offshoot at Centrale Montemartini, which displays hundreds of artefacts in the industrial context of an old power plant on the Via Ostiense, near Testaccio. The National Museum at Palazzo Altemps houses supreme bounty, from statues and mosaics to frescoes and 2,000-year-old everyday objects.

The latest additions to the state’s stock of ancient treasures are on show at the Baths of Diocletian. The current exhibition, Rome: Notes from Underground, displays more than 1,000 artefacts found in Rome in the past 20 years and never before exhibited to the public.

Pierreci, an arts and cultural heritage organisation, also has a calendar of exclusive Italian guided tours of archaeological Roman sites normally closed to the public. The tours are usually at the weekend and offer a good opportunity to brush up your Italian. The current list includes the Casa dei Grifi (the oldest Republican house on the Palatine), the Mitreo di Santo Stefano Roton-do (an edifice dedicated to the Persian deity Mithras beneath a 5th-century church) and the remarkable tomb that is the Pyramid of Caius Cestius.

For a flavour of imperial bling, Nero’s Golden Palace (Domus Aurea), a cavernous nexus of epic rooms built into the Oppio hillside overlooking the Colosseum, was partially reopened in February for guided visits during its continuing restoration.

The frescoed grottos are said to have been an inspiration to Renaissance artists such as Raphael, who used to be lowered down through a hole in the roof by candlelight.

For a lighthearted digest of classics, once a week, from June 22 to August 10, the Roman Forum is host to an English-speaking theatre troupe, the Miracle Players, who will be performing its latest production, Caesar - More Than Just a Salad. The comic drama retells the rise and fall of Julius Caesar, who is said to have met his bloody end not far from the Forum at the Theatre of Pompeii.

For more information on exhibitions and archaeological tours, including the Domus Aurea, see www.pierreci.it or www.romaturismo.it

Nick Wyke is the author of The Insider’s Guide to Rome