After seeing the Baths of Caracalla, cross over Viale Aventino and scale the Aventine Hill - the southernmost of the city’s seven hills and the heart of plebeian Rome in ancient times. These days the working-class quarters of the city are further south, and the Aventine is in fact one of the city’s more upscale residential areas, covered with villas and gardens and one of the few places in the city where you can escape the traffic. A short way up Via Santa Sabina, the church of Santa Sabina (daily 7am-12.45pm & 3.30-6pm) is a strong contender for Rome’s most beautiful basilica: high and wide, its nave and portico restored back to their fifth-century appearance in the 1930s. Look especially at the main doors, which are contemporary with the church and boast eighteen panels carved with Christian scenes, forming a complete illustrated Bible, which includes one of the oldest representations of the Crucifixion in existence. Santa Sabina is also the principal church of the Dominicans, and it’s claimed that the orange trees in the garden outside which you can glimpse on your way to the restrained cloister are descendants of those planted by St Dominic himself. Whatever the truth of this, the views from the gardens are splendid - right crossways the Tiber to the centre of Rome and St Peter’s.

There are other churches on the Aventine, a couple of them extremely ancient, but all were remodelled in the seventeenth century and aren’t especially interesting as a result. In any case it’s a nice place to wander. Follow the road south past the Priorato di Malta , one of several buildings in the city belonging to the Knights of Malta, which has a celebrated view of the dome of St Peter’s through the keyhole of its main gate. The little piazza in front of the main gate has marble triumphal insignia designed and placed here by Piranesi to celebrate the knights’ dramatic history.