Rome

Book the first slot of the day and walk in as the sun clears the top tiers — for twenty minutes it's yours. The combined ticket covers the Forum next door; do both before lunch.

The downtown of the ancient world, best read from above — climb the Palatine first and look down over the whole broken spine of it, then walk the Via Sacra like everyone from Caesar to now.

A 1,900-year-old concrete dome with a hole in the top, still the building every architect measures against. Go when it rains if you can — the shaft of falling water through the oculus is worth the wet shoes.

Four kilometres of corridors between you and the Sistine ceiling — book the earliest entry, walk briskly past the first hour of maps, and save your eyes for the last room. Michelangelo holds up.

The basilica is free and overwhelming; the 551 steps up the dome are the point. You come out on top of Michelangelo's masterpiece with all of Rome at your feet.

At 7am it's you, the sound of water, and a street sweeper. At noon it's a thousand phones. Same fountain, completely different experience — set the alarm, throw the coin properly.

The great sweep of 135 steps down from Trinità dei Monti — sit, people-watch, and don't eat on them (there's a fine now).

Navona for Bernini's rivers and the buskers; Campo de' Fiori at 8am for the flower and vegetable market that's run since 1869. Coffee standing at the bar between the two.

Hadrian's round mausoleum turned papal fortress — cross the statue-lined bridge and climb to a terrace with one of Rome's best rooftop views.

Bernini's marble that moves — Daphne turning to laurel mid-flight, David mid-throw — in a villa you get for exactly two timed hours. The best small museum in Europe; book days ahead.

Rome's oldest quarter — quiet lanes, the ruined Portico d'Ottavia, and the city's best fried artichokes (carciofi alla giudia).

Cross the river at sunset, get lost on purpose, and stop wherever the noise sounds right. The basilica's gold mosaics glow over the square all evening — Rome's best free show.

The terrace above Trastevere where Rome lays all its domes out in one line for you. Arrive twenty minutes before sundown; someone's usually selling cold beer from a cart.

Rome's most honest market — produce and butchers on one side, some of the city's best cheap lunch counters on the other. Eat a panino with the stallholders, not a menu turistico.

Guanciale, pecorino, egg, pepper — no cream, ever, and Testaccio's old kitchens guard the standard. Order it where the menu is short and the room is full of Romans arguing.