Rome is a city of two lives. There is the Rome the guidebooks and the group tours find, and there is the Rome the Romans keep for themselves. A proper private week, well drawn, can bring the traveller a distance into the second one.
We begin, usually, away from the centre. A residence in Trastevere or in the Rione Monti, two neighbourhoods that still belong to the families who live in them. An espresso at seven from a bar without a name. A breakfast at a small patisserie where the counter was put in when Rome was still a kingdom.
The mornings, ideally, are private. A walk through the Forum with an archaeologist an hour before the gate opens publicly. The Sistine Chapel in a fifteen-minute window before the general public enters — always one of the most surprising mornings of anyone’s first Rome. The Capitoline Museums with a curator who will open a case for you.
Between the monuments, the city does most of its good work. A long lunch at a restaurant in Testaccio that has served the same dish for eighty years. A ride on a restored Vespa through the quieter Lungotevere. A nap. A late dinner in a restaurant in the Ghetto that sends the children home with you around ten.
A day outside the city we nearly always recommend. A drive into the Castelli Romani for a lunch in a vineyard. The gardens of Ninfa, a private morning walk under the ilex. A visit to the papal town of Castel Gandolfo when the public does not know it is open. Tivoli’s villas, at the right hour, without a soul in them.
Rome rewards the traveller willing to be a little patient with the city. A first visit can be overwhelming; a second, slower, visit almost always reveals the city that people actually live in. For those who are returning, or for those who are coming for the first time with the time to be unhurried — we consider a week in Rome one of the great private pleasures a European traveller can arrange.
