Rome at Christmas and in spring

I have been to Rome several times over the years now, and so on the last two occasions, Christmas 2015 and May 2016, we took the opportunity to visit a few places that usually get skipped for lack of time.

CHRISTMAS During the Christmas holiday, apart from a glance at St Peter's Square packed with tourists and its Christmas tree, we didn't spend any more time there; instead we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Castel Sant'Angelo, with a beautiful pink sunset over the city. The other gem we wanted to see was Cinecittà. We got off the metro right in front of the entrance and bought the full ticket including the museum and the tour. The guided tour takes us onto several sets that have been used many times and are still in use today, where you really do feel as though you are walking the streets of Manhattan, the alleys and squares of imperial Rome, or the streets of fifteenth-century Florence. Studio No. 5, used by Fellini, also has its own charm, as do other areas that recreate settings such as the inside of a submarine or the gardens of houses from TV dramas.

It was all very atmospheric and, to stay on the subject of TV, still by metro we reached the Garbatella and stood in front of the "Cesaroni bar", to our son's delight. The holiday then came to an end wandering around the Imperial Fora and through the alleys of Trastevere, all decked out and full of people celebrating in the many venues overlooking the hidden little squares.

1 MAY BANK HOLIDAY On the 1 May long weekend of 2016, however, our escape to Rome had as its goals both the Vatican Museums and the archaeological site of Ostia Antica. For the Vatican Museums, always wonderful and deserving more days of visiting, we booked tickets online, and I must say the organisation, despite the thousands of people crowding outside, was flawless. The restored Sistine Chapel leaves you stunned by its sheer grandeur; the only downside is that, with so many people, you can't linger long and after a while you're asked to move along the route. Ostia Antica was a pleasant discovery. You reach it by a little train for the same price as a metro ticket, and then on foot. You have to walk 600 or 700 metres to reach the ticket office.

The area is large, with remains of every kind, from foundations to buildings as much as two storeys high, a well-kept theatre, the ruins of temples and an enormous number of mosaics along the edges of the squares. You can also follow the route that once led out of the city to the port, but we didn't do that because of the rain, which fortunately arrived just as we were finishing our visit to the town. On Saturday morning we treated ourselves to a wander around the Porta Portese market, where, besides the clothing stalls and bric-a-brac, we headed down the little street running parallel to the market and discovered shops and warehouses still made of corrugated iron, occupied by bike and motorbike repairers and sellers of the strangest objects, almost as if we were back in the early post-war years.