From The Sunday Times Travel Magazine

Rimini-born Federico Fellini made some of his best films in his beloved birthplace, but it’s pretty obvious why he chose Rome as the setting for La Dolce Vita.

And no wonder Audrey Hepburn’s Princess, in the movie Roman Holiday, ditched her title to run around the city on the back of Gregory Peck’s Vespa.

Somehow effortlessly, the capital marries seriously photogenic architecture with a sunny, playful disposition: equal parts sombre ancient temples and capricious dolphin fountains.

The Sunday Times Travel Magazine - December

The Luxe guide to Rome

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BACKGROUND

• To Rome by rail

• Where to eat in Rome

• Welcome to Rome, open city...

• Rome's heart of darkness

• Campania: the Roman sin city

Rome: the complete guide

The Eternal City brims with classic attractions – but it’s found a perfect present tense too

• The Luxe guide to Rome

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• The Luxe guide to Rome

The city is a magical history tour, best known for its Baroque buildings, but honed by architects and artists either side of that era into a showcase of Classical, Medieval and Renaissance beauty – thread together just one example of each and you’ve got a glorious slideshow of a weekend. And don’t think the place is all about past glories.

Spanking new buildings – dazzling outings in gleaming glass and Ariel-white concrete – are injecting postmodern pizzazz into Rome’s picture-postcard cityscape of temples and towers, and their pure lines are drawing crowds of design-devoted visitors. It means you can immerse yourself in history (columns, Caravaggio) for half a day, then crank things up with contemporary art in the afternoon, clubbing in appealingly edgy areas after dark – new nightlife is transforming run-down districts into distinctly disco zones.

Even the famously traditional food scene is hotting up, with designer pizzas and deconstructed dolci (puds). And while it was once tricky to stay somewhere classy but not costly, that’s no longer the case. If Hepburn’s Princess were to visit today, you can bet she’d cash in the tiara for a moped of her own.Rachel Spence

PAST PERFECT

Newly on show after years of restoration, Rome’s most compelling classical site right now is Trajan’s Market (00 39 060 60608, www.mercatiditraiano.it; £5), one of the few that give a real glimpse of what life was actually like in the ancient world. Built 50-250 AD, it’s a half-moon of tiered streets with ancient bars and boutiques so well-preserved you can still see the grooves where they slammed down the shutters at the end of a hard day’s trading. The site recently re-opened with the Imperial Forums Museum – which gives you a sorely-needed insight in to the head-spinning history behind each of the different ancient forums.

One of Rome’s few surviving examples of medieval architecture is a stunner: the Basilica di Santa Maria, in Trastevere, has a glittering facade of pale-faced, lamp-bearing ladies picked out in mosaics. The whole thing is actually a happy hodge-podge, with a Baroque porch tacked on over the 12th-century exterior, marching classical columns, and more sparkly mosaics. Best of all, you can see it while sitting down – take a pew at Caffè di Marzio (Piazza di Santa Maria 15), and order one of its famously tall and thirst-slaking glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice.

Rock up early for the finest Renaissance show in town – queues for the Vatican Museums (00 39 066 988 3333, www.vatican.va; £11) seem to be waiting for Godot rather than Michelangelo. You won’t regret it once you’re in: scuttle straight to the Sistine Chapel. If God darting about on the ceiling looks a tad stressed, maybe it’s because seven days wasn’t long enough to create the world. Now backtrack to the Raphael rooms and play spot the VIP (Very Important Philosopher) in the Renaissance artist’s School of Athens masterpiece.

Do as the Romans do and kick back in the sprawling, tree-studded retreat that is the Villa Borghese gardens. You’ll soon be high on the scent of pine needles and orange blossom, and ready to tackle the Galleria Borghese (Piazzale del Museo 5; 00 39 068 413979, www.galleriaborghese.it; £8, timed entry). Originally the art collection of a 17th-century Cardinal – no one can accuse the Catholic Church of puritanism – it’s so masterpiece-heavy, you don’t know where to start. Just memorise the two names Bernini and Caravaggio, then go and find the soaring visions of those Italian masters.

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