YWCA

Over our 3 days in the city, we didn't take public - or any other type - of transport and not because it was inconvenient, expensive or complicated. On our feet, we could wander into rustic, impossibly narrow streets, up ancient back stairways and into lush green spaces that we would have missed had we taken taxi, bus or Metro. On foot, we were often surrounded by more Romans than tourists, and the music that is Italian conversation. Rambling the backstreets, you can smell the delightful aromas of roasting meat and simmering sauces from the kitchens of weathered, terra cotta-colored flats, hear children at play in postage-stamp-sized gardens, see the cheerful riot of flowers that spill from simply everywhere and experience little corners of the Rome that is home to thousands of people.

Here are a couple areas that were particular favorites:

? Trastevere - considered by its population to be "authentic" Rome. Very rustic, very beautiful - take a wander to Santa Maria in Trastevere, see the church and explore at least the 5-6 block area surrounding the piazza.

? Via Giulia - included in many guidebooks but no tourists around when we did it. A roughly 10-block stroll of 16th - 18th century pallazi, churches and antique shops.

? Any of the routes right along the Tiber - especially in the evening!

? The great green spaces of Villa Borghese and around Domus Aurea

? Portico d'Ottavia area in the Jewish Ghetto - Roman ruins, Medieval and Renaissance buildings

? Across Ponte Sant'AngeloA favorite memory is of walking to the Capitoline very early on our first morning in Rome - the slow-moving Tiber reflecting Bernini's angels on the Ponte Sant'Angelo, passing shuttered shops along quiet, cobbled streets and trading buon giornos with a few locals on their way to work. Too early for the museums to be open, we wandered into a virtually deserted Forum to marvel - in the grey mist of a light rain - at the crumbled, ghostly remains of what was once the center of the most powerful empire on earth.