Rome

One of the city's most-walked squares is the shape it is because a stadium stood there. Romans raced on that ground; the seating decayed; houses went up on its foundations and followed the curve; and the long oval outlasted every one of those changes, so an evening crowd circling it is tracing a track laid out for athletes. None of that counts as a curiosity here. It is the ordinary condition of the place.

A city built on its own rubble

Ground level in the centre has risen over the centuries — floods, fires, demolition, and the Roman habit of levelling a ruin and building straight on top of it. Antiquity, as a practical matter, is downstairs. You go down to reach it: into excavated forums below the modern pavement, into crypts beneath churches, and in one celebrated case through a medieval basilica into an earlier church and then into a Roman lane with water still running along it.

Reuse did the rest of the preserving. Ancient Rome's best-preserved building survives intact because it was converted into a church early and never abandoned, and columns quarried from imperial ruins hold up half the basilicas in the city. Fountains still run partly on channels laid in antiquity, which is why cast-iron street taps across the centre pour drinkable water all day.

Not everything survived by accumulation. The twentieth century drove a wide ceremonial avenue through a dense inhabited quarter beside the imperial forums, and cleared another approach across the river; both scars are legible once you know to look.

When to come

April, May and October are the city's months. Roman summers are hot in a way that shuts down the middle of the day, and the stone holds that heat well past sunset. Spring brings long light, wisteria over courtyard walls and the worst of the queues. October brings warm afternoons, cool mornings and a city that has gone back to work.

August deserves its own warning: heat peaks, and a real share of the neighbourhood restaurants close for the mid-month holiday, leaving the centre to visitors. Couples should get up early at least once — Rome before eight belongs to residents and delivery vans, and the famous squares are briefly empty enough to see properly.

Getting about

Walk. The historic centre is compact and the pleasure lies in what you pass rather than what you arrive at. The metro will carry you to the Colosseum and to the Vatican, but it misses the historic-centre core almost entirely, for the excellent reason that digging in Rome hits archaeology and stops for years. Buses and trams fill the gaps, cobbles punish the wrong shoes, and taxis are best taken from a rank.

Whether it is expensive

Rome costs less than its peers for everything except the bed. Eating well is cheap once you walk away from the sights; the great churches charge nothing; the fountains and the piazzas charge nothing.

Accommodation is where the money goes, priced almost entirely on distance from the centre. A room inside the historic core commands a serious premium, and it is worth understanding rather than dismissing: staying centrally means going back through the worst of the afternoon and coming out again at nine, which is how Romans use their own city. Between that and the outskirts sit the residential quarters a tram ride from the middle, and that is where the value lives. Rates move sharply with the religious calendar and the shoulder-season rush, so comparing current stay and experience options across your dates is worth an hour before anything is booked.

What is worth paying for

The first entry slot of the day at the major sites, every time. Whatever it costs to be inside the great collections before the tour groups arrive, pay it.

Beyond that: a room inside the walls, for the reason above; and one long lunch in a working food quarter, where the cooking runs on offal, pasta and sheep's cheese rather than on anything invented for visitors.

Where to stay

The Aspirational Luxury Pick

A palazzo conversion or grand hotel in the historic centre, with a roof terrace over the domes and rooms carved out of spaces built for entirely other purposes. These places sell the address and the terrace. They suit travellers who want to walk out of the door into the city at eleven at night.

The Mid-Tier Value Premium Selection

A small hotel or apartment in one of the older quarters just off the tourist spine, with a lift, a decent breakfast and a handful of rooms. You keep the walkable centre and lose the terrace and the ceremony. Ideal for couples out from morning until very late.

The Smart Entry-Level Option

A guesthouse or apartment in a residential neighbourhood a tram or bus ride from the middle, with a market, a bakery and a bar of its own. You trade twenty minutes each way for more room and a version of Rome that has not been curated.

Rome at a glance