When in Rome

Public transport is cheap and frequent. You will have to guess when it comes to where to buy a ticket; try a bar or a tobacconist.

The famous sites, the set-pieces are excellent and spectacular and likely to be crowded.

Walk if you are able. Between the well-known landmarks you will see an amazing range of ancient/ruined/re-purposed Roman artefacts.

Eat where the locals eat. Pizza, pasta and puddings were good everywhere.
Drink coffee. I found one excellent cup of tea in Rome, Assam, without milk, exquisite; you will probably not be so lucky.

The price of coffee is very simple. As a rough guide: in a back-street bar €1.20 at a table, €0.80 at the bar; On the tourist trail €3; in sight of a famous site €4; close to St Peter's €5.

If you want to see a particular place, say the inside of a museum, figure out whether it is possible to pre-book. There are special visitor tickets that offer museums and local transport inclusive which may save you money.

The large, square romanesque building next to Castel S. Angelo is not in the guidebooks. As far as my Italian will allow, it is the law court and police headquarters. Its frontage and the adjoining Piazza are well worth a look and are empty of tourists. There is a reasonable wine-bar there too.

I stayed near Termini, the main bus and train station. The guide books will suggest that if any area of Rome is rough, it is this one. I had no problems.

At the main tourist attractions there will be hawkers. How it is that the hospitals of Rome do not have to regularly surgically remove selfie-sticks from these people I will never know.

Earthquakes happen. The hotel staff were happy to measure the severity by the distance that the chandelier inside the main door swung in response to the quake.

During my visit, at the end of October, weather was 17-20 degrees (62-68 F) and I wore T-shirt and sandals with jeans, with a scarf after dark. I saw no Romans wearing sandals, my primary school teachers lied to me.