Postcard from Rome

Stay in the Centro Storico and walk everywhere: through the Piazza Navona, past Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain, and into the Pantheon in the Piazza della Rotonda, the domed templeturned-church built by Hadrian; the Piazza Farnese, with Michelangelo's façade of the now French embassy, and the two huge fountains, nicked from the Baths of Caracalla; across the Ponte Sisto into Trastevere, until recently Rome's slum, where American trust-fund babies fantasise about being artists, and finish up in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere. If you drink your coffee standing up at the bar, like the Romans, it's half the price of sitting down.

There's so much that you won't be able to pack everything in. You can pay a fortune for the Vatican Museums but a lot of the best stuff is free: the churches cost nothing. See the Caravaggios in San Luigi dei Francesci and Santa Maria del Popolo; the Rafaels in Santa Maria della Pace. Walk past the glass windows of the Ara Pacis Augustae. Crawl the fountains, the Triton fountains on Piazza Barberini, the Trevi fountain, Bernini's Tortoise fountain in Piazza Mattei. The Forumwas free until last March but now costs 11. For ancient sculpture, go to the Palazzo Altemps, by the Piazza Navona, and see the Ludovisi throne.

For modern architectural gems, go to a concert at Renzo Piano's extraordinary new Auditorium Parco della Musica, with the best acoustics in Italy. Borromini's bizarre trompe l'oeil (a tiny statue that looks like a huge one) in the Palazzo Spada is a bargain at 2.

For drinks, there's the Caffè della Pace, near Piazza Navona, where the chic like to sit and drink. There's also the Campo dei Fiori, stuffed with bars, and wireless internet cafes; Vigneria on the corner, is young, cheap and fun; for a view of Rome and possibly Brad Pitt, the roof terrace of the Hotel Eden, behind the Spanish Steps. The bar Crudo on Via degli Specchi suffers from international minimalist chic. Pucci's on Viale di Trastevere is where Rome's failed actors meet to talk about the bit parts they once had in soap operas.

As for food, the good news is that, unless money is no object, there is almost no point in going to a grand Roman restaurant, the smaller ones are delicious. Da Francesco, on Piazza del Fico, serves delicious pasta and antipasti. Monte Carlo, just off Corso Vittorio, does a great pizza. Da Luigi, on Piazza Riario, has fried artichokes and pasta with lobster. The roof terrace restaurant of the Palazzo Caffarelli on the Campidoglio has a wonderful mozzarella salad, but the real selling point is its view of the Forum.

If, however, you want to spend money and eat with David Beckham, then try Dal Bolognese on Piazza del Popolo; La Rosetta, just by the Pantheon, is probably the only fish restaurant ever thanked by Nicole Kidman in a film festival speech. Gianfranco Vissani, Italy's answer to Gordon Ramsay holds sway at the Casina Valadier, in the Villa Borghese. Vissani also worked at Osteria dell' Orso, a much more reasonably priced restaurant, on Via dell'Orso, just off Piazza Navona.

There are thousands of hotels, for every budget. The Albergo Abruzzo on the Piazza della Rotonda, opposite the Pantheon, is central, charming, and has very good double glazing: from 110 for a double room; opposite is the oldest hotel in the city, Hotel Sole al Pantheon (double rooms 220). Grander is the Grand Hotel de la Minerve, on the Piazza Minerva, by Bernini's beautiful obelisk balanced on an elephant's back, with a fabulous roof terrace; doubles start at 300. The aptly named Hotel de Russie, on Via del Babuino, from 320 a double. It caters for oligarchs and George Clooney when he filmed Ocean's Twelve.

Get into the mood before you go: watch Gladiator, Cleopatra, the epic on whose set Burton and Taylor fell in love; Audrey Hepburn's Roman Holiday and, for a gloomy moment, Roma, Città Aperta by Rossellini, a dark portrayal of the German occupation. Read Robert Graves' I, Claudius, or Jean Plaidy's Borgia series, for the Empire and the Renaissance. But even pig-ignorant, you can still appreciate it.