Climb a staircase clinging to one of the Seven Hills or pass through a majestic stone archway to discover more than sixty of the most beautiful, tranquil, and sometimes wonderfully unknown places in Rome. Lose yourself in the grounds of the Villa Borghese before finding the walled garden of a sculptor’s-studio-turned-museum, where few tourists set foot. You’ll find courtyards where mossy fountains splash; cool, quiet cloisters; exquisite gardens scented by boxwood and bay trees; pocket-sized piazzas filled with archaeological details dating to the days of Caesar. Some are secret enclaves that even the most sophisticated Romans haven’t wandered into. The text may recall the history of a locale, a literary reference that brings the setting to life—and always the perfect time to visit each place to see it at its most atmospheric.

This charming guidebook celebrates over fifty of the most beautiful, tranquil, and often hidden places in the Eternal City. Some of Rome’s quiet corners boast breathtaking views, while others are filled with archaeological or architectural details, from crumbling aqueducts or majestic stone archways, to Renaissance garden follies, frescoed walls, and Baroque fountains. Enter a maze of alleys near the open market at Campo de’ Fiori, for instance, and discover leafy Romanesque courtyards where cats laze amid Vespas and potted palms, or lose yourself in any number of verdant parks and gardens that provide a cool and shadowy refuge.

Author David Downie and photographer Alison Harris climb the Janiculum—the highest hill within Rome’s ancient walled fortifications—and find hidden benches with see-forever views; a church forecourt where Goethe sat and sighed, drinking in the inspiration; and the park of a once-noble villa now luxuriantly overgrown, its long trellises knotted with fragrant wisteria and climbing roses. On the Palatine, they find a narrow lane that passes over the ancient ruins, affording rare glimpses of the Forum and Coliseum, free of charge, and with no wait. Beyond the Domus Aurea of Emperor Nero, they discover a sweeping staircase from a century ago and the massive brick remains of a temple to Isis. Even the most intrepid travelers who think of themselves as Rome “insiders” will be surprised when they follow the author and photographer of this guidebook through the Roman labyrinth. Historical anecdotes and quotations from antiquity to the present day are woven throughout the text, bringing Rome alive.

David Downie is an American author and journalist who divides his time between Italy and France; Downie’s mother is Roman, and he lived in Rome when young. For the last 25 years he has been writing about European culture, food, wine and travel for magazines and newspapers worldwide. His books include Enchanted Liguria: A Celebration of the Culture, Lifestyle and Food of the Italian Riviera; Cooking the Roman Way: Authentic Recipes from the Home Cooks and Trattorias of Rome; The Irreverent Guide to Amsterdam; and Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light. His political thriller, Paris City of Night, was published in summer 2009. Downie is the author of three Terroir Guides published by The Little Bookroom — Food Wine Italian Riviera, Food Wine Rome, and Food Wine Burgundy — and of Quiet Corners of Rome.

Alison Harris has worked throughout the world shooting photos for travel books, cookbooks, advertising campaigns, book covers, and magazine articles. She spent much of her childhood in Rome. Her latest books are Markets of Paris, The Pâtisseries of Paris, Chic Shopping Paris, Food Wine Italian Riviera & Genoa, Food Wine Rome, and Food Wine Burgundy, all published by The Little Bookroom.

MEET DAVID DOWNIE AND ALISON HARRIS

Thursday, April 28, 5:30 - 7 pm
Rizzoli Bookstore
31 West 57th St, New York City
www.rizzolibookstore.com
No RSVP required

Monday, May 2, 7:00 pm
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd, Corte Madera
415-927-0960
www.bookpassage.com
No RSVP required

Tuesday, May 3, 7:30 pm
Readers' Books
130 E Napa St, Sonoma
707-939-1779
www.readersbooks.com
No RSVP required

Saturday, May 7, 4:00 pm
Mrs. Dalloway's Literary & Garden Arts
2904 College Ave, Berkeley
510-704- 8222
www.mrsdalloways.com
No RSVP required

Tuesday, May 10, 6:00 pm
Mechanics' Institute Library
57 Post St, San Francisco
415-393-0100
www.milibrary.org
RSVP: rsvp@milibrary.org
Free to members and $12 to non-members.
Co-sponsored with Instituto Italiano di Cultura, San Francisco

Wednesday, May 11, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Omnivore Books
3885A Cesar Chavez St, San Francisco
415-282-4712
www.omnivorebooks.com
No RSVP required

Courtyard of Museo Pietro Canonica
VILLA BORGHESE
Entrance: Viale Pietro Canonica 2
Metro: Flaminio-Piazza del Popolo, Piazza di Spagna
Park open daily, museum open Tuesday to Sunday 9am to 7pm
Tel: 06 884 2279, 060608, www.museocanonica.it

Near the geographic center of Villa Borghese, across from the elegant equitation track at Piazza di Siena, the rarely visited, pinkish, castellated building called the Fortezzuola houses the Museo Pietro Canonica. Look for the bronze sculpture of a laden mule and a World War One Alpino soldier, enter the archway behind them, and prepare to be entranced. Framing an octagonal wellhead covered by climbing roses is a garden court from the late 1700s so thick with oranges, lemons and boxwood that you can barely see the benches awaiting in the dusky corners. By a clump of fan-like papyrus, water drips from a lion’s mouth into a scallop-shaped basin grown thick with moss. The courtyard’s frescoes are ghostly, so weathered that you can barely make out the trompe-l’oeil heads.
Surprises await inside the museum, where sculptor Pietro Canonica lived and labored from 1926 to 1959. Never heard of him? Canonica was huge a century ago. Born in Moncalieri in 1869, he made his fortune in Rome by portraying Europe’s aristocracy and military heroes. Giant plaster casts stand in vast workshops, marble carvings jut from walls, and the sculptor’s tools, personal effects, furniture and collections fill a maze of rooms. This may just be Rome’s most atmospheric house-museum, the magic redoubled by solitude: the crowds are definitely elsewhere.

Via del Colosseo
MONTI, near the COLOSSEUM
Entrances: Via delle Carine, Via Cavour, Via Frangipane, Piazza del Colosseo
Metro: Colosseo
Open daily

Dodge the plastic-clad gladiators waving wooden swords in front of the Colosseum, or scamper off busy Via dei Fori Imperiali, and take refuge in Via del Colosseo. Nowadays a back road, it was once a main street converging on the colossal amphitheater built by Flavius. Go to numbers 16–19, facing a caper-draped brick wall and rusticated doorway overhung by towering trees and garlands of ivy. You’re standing around the corner from a pocket-size Baroque church, its weathered, russet façade forever hemmed by parked cars. This unexpected enclave, cobbled and elevated a yard or so above street level, forms a tiny triangle of bliss, where red bougainvillea and purple wisteria creep across the puckered, peach-hued plaster of centuries-old buildings. A humble Madonna gazes down beatifically at you from a leafy niche, inviting you to sit on the short flight of stairs and rest a spell. Rosemary and sage grow along one side of the triangle, within reach of someone’s kitchen window. This is pure Rome. Sure, a high school and grammar school face each other down nearby Via delle Carine, but the yelps of students fade into the background hum. Lift your eyes. Above the tiled rooftops you’ll glimpse the battered last tier of the Colosseum one long block to the southeast, a million miles away when measured in terms of atmosphere.

Cloister of the Hotel Donna Camilla Savelli
THE JANICULUM
Entrance: Via Garibaldi 27
Metro: n/a
Open daily
Tel: 06 588 861, www.hoteldonnacamillasavelli.com

On the face of it, cloisters, convents and Francesco Borromini, the seventeenth-century Baroque architect, arch-enemy of Bernini and notoriously beset by gloom, do not normally evoke luxe, calm and voluptuousness. It is precisely these ingredients that come together in the Donna Camilla Savelli, a hotel in the lavishly reconverted Santa Maria dei Sette Dolori monastic complex. You can overnight and enjoy this four-star hostelry hidden at the base of the Janiculum, edging Trastevere. But anyone may enter, not just paying guests. Don’t be put off by the stern forecourt. It showcases Borromini’s trademark passion for convexes and concaves in unadorned brick. Beyond the foyer and reception area, the main courtyard, once a cloister, is now a welcoming garden café surrounded by the hotel’s historic, blush-pink buildings. Guests and visitors may stroll through or take tea and nibble crumpets—or other potables and edibles. A centerpiece fountain shaped like a cloverleaf gurgles, hesitant, it seems, to break the spell. Camellias, climbing red roses and a magnificent scented magnolia lend vertical touches of color, while the rosemary and sage are tucked into tidy beds among terra-cotta urns in the courtyard’s sunniest spots. A vow of silence is no longer required for admission, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself whispering while in this heavenly spot.