I intended to apply the "when in Rome, do as the Romans" adage on a recent visit to the Italian capital. This meant avoiding the major tourist traps - the Vatican, Colosseum, Piazza Navona, Piazza di Spagna et al - and concentrating on visiting the places and doing the things that your regular Roma- no would do.
However, there is one famous Roman landmark - although mobbed by tourists from dawn to dusk - that is irresistible and worth going to again and again. Fontana di Trevi, situated just off Via Del Corso (Rome's principal shopping street), is a magical place. Because it's so overwhelmingly beautiful, it radiates warmth and wonder in those who see it. The resulting atmosphere around the fontana - where people tend to hang around and chat rather than get their photo taken and march off to the next picture postcard place - is one of awe and pleasure.
There is also a street vendor nearby who barbecues a mean chestnut, no matter what time of year it is. Although they're a bit pricey and, let's face it, look like miniature brains when you get them out of their shells, a small bag of barbecued chestnuts can be just the ticket if you're peckish during the afternoon. However, barbecued chestnuts are surprisingly filling and tasty, so to avoid spoiling your appetite, don't eat much more than half a dozen at a time.
As food and wine are so good in Italy, spoiling your appetite is masochistic in the extreme. Eating out in Rome can be an expensive business but, if you know where to go, it doesn't have to be so.
Trastevere, literally across the Tevere (Tiber), is a well-known area of the old city in Rome noted for its narrow streets, sun-faded splendour, small piazzas, craft shops and slightly off-beat nature. Mercifully, it is not as overrun by tourists as other parts of the old city.
At night, Trastevere is an enchanting place. Locals lounge outside gelaterias, or walk around candle-lit side-streets that are littered with tradesmen selling their wares. It is also a great place to eat authentic Italian food in small family restaurants which generally serve their own specialities.
One such restaurant, Dar Poeta on Vicolo del Bologna near the Ponte Sisto, is typical. This is the type of place where waiters banter with diners throughout the evening and total the bill on the tablecloth. For starters, or antipasti, you can order things like ham and melon (the "dry" ham is a perfect riposte to the "wet" melon) or stuffed olives with a pan-fried coating of breadcrumbs. Both bring your taste-buds to somewhere special.
After a meal in Trastevere, many people head for the gelateria and, in particular, La Fonte Della Salute (the source of good health) just off Viale Trastevere. As you make your way along Trastevere's lane-ways, however, you'll have to battle for space with locals going about their business on mopeds. These omnipresent pests, with their hair-raising engines, smoky exhaust pipes and rules-of-the-road-averse riders, are the quintessential Roman pain in the ass.
But, once you get to La Fonte Della Salute, the hassle and raised hair is worth it. This gelateria has almost every conceivable ice-cream. And, as well as that, the prices are reasonable. But you'd need to eat your ice-cream quite quickly to prevent Rome's ambient temperatures from sending it sliding down your sleeve.
Another great way to have a real Roman experience is to see a game of calcio in lo Stadio Olimpico. Situated in the north of the city, Rome's bowl-like Olympic Stadium comfortably seats more than 75,000 people and is an awesome sight once you're inside. With such a huge capacity, there generally aren't too many problems picking up tickets for a Serie A fixture - even though it's the best league in the world.
Football-wise, Rome is bitterly divided between Roma (the giallorossi) and Lazio (the biancazzuri). The antipathy between some of the supporters of these two clubs - although not quite as overwhelming as, say, Rangers and Celtic - still makes the mind boggle. But, for the neutral, the attraction of attending a Serie A fixture in Rome is that you get to see some of the world's best players and witness Italian passions gone mad.
I saw two games: Roma v Parma, and Roma v Inter. At this stage, I better admit that I'm a Roma fan, and watched both games from the Curva Sud, the central section of which is the natural habitat and ancestral home of Roma's most fanatical and Lazio-loathing supporters - the ultras.
On show at the Roma-Parma game were players like Brazil's Aldair and Cafu, Italian internationals Di Biaggio, Dino Baggio and Enrico Chiesa, Croatia's Mario Stanic and a few Argentine internationals. More than 53,000 people saw a highly entertaining game that ended 2-2. The Roma-Inter match, however, left the Roma-Parma game in the ha'penny place. More than 71,000 people were in attendance to see current world number two, Ronaldo, Argentines Zanetti and Simeone, Frenchman Djorkaeff and Chilean Zamorano play Roma's finest.
The first half was a tame affair. Both teams were tentative and, as a result, the ultras spent most of the time exchanging pleasantries with their Inter counterparts. Every now and then agitated old men would stand up and shake their arms furiously at the players. But, when the referee was believed to have made an unfavourable decision, this led to an unmerciful torrent of untranslatable abuse.
However, the game came alive in the second half when Ronaldo burst bullet-like through the Roma defence, rounded the keeper and tapped the ball into an empty net. Inter's travelling fans erupted but, a few minutes later, Roma surged forward and equalised through Cafu. The Curva Sud went berserk and the ultras started an ear-bursting chant of Forza Roma!
Just then the PA's jingle was heard, there was a deathly silence and everybody turned hopefully to the stadium's giant television screens. A second later we learned that Lazio had gone behind and euphoria ensued on the Curva Sud. People jumped up and down, danced, hugged and kissed one another. It was an amazing outpouring of joy - enough, perhaps, to compensate for four derby defeats to Lazio that season.
With the game really cooking and the fans chanting and counter-chanting encouragement, the next 10 minutes were especially memorable. But, as the rain began to pelt down and the lightning started, Ronaldo struck again for Inter and sent the Roma fans home drenched and defeated.