Rome has been compared to a person earning a living by showing off the bones of his dead granny and though the city certainly capitalises on its ancient history, it's impossible not to be seduced by its splendour and its zest.
Taking in the sweep of its architecture - from the Roman ruins of the Forum and the Colosseum, through the Renaissance grandeur of St. Peter's to Bernini's Baroque fountains - can be a fairly dizzying experience but the city never gets too much. Like a seasoned entertainer, it always leaves you wanting more.
Much of the old centre, between the Pantheon and the river Tiber, has been pedestrianised in recent years and has therefore become a great place to wander around, in spite of the constant throng of tourists. The elegant Piazza Navona and the Campo de Fiori, the site of the flower market, are popular places to while away the evening with drinks, dinner or an ice cream. The once working-class (but now expensive) district of Trastevere, just across the river, is also major area for bars and restaurants.
For clubbing, most Romans head for the Testaccio neighbourhood a little further south. The Vatican is a little island unto itself and you'll need more than a day to make the most of its museums, which include the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Stanze.
Even if you're not religious, and don't speak Italian, you'll get a better idea of what St Peter's basilica is all about by attending a Mass there: consider the difference between being in a football stadium when it's empty and returning when the faithful have amassed.
The capital's football clubs are two of only three to have broken the Juventus-AC Milan duopoly in the last 16 years (Inter are the other). AS Roma won the league in 2001 under coach Fabio Capello but are so skint that for a spell FIFA blocked the club's transfer activity. In local boy Francesco Totti, though, the club still has the most gifted Italian player of his generation.
Rivals SS Lazio won the title under Sven-Göran Eriksson a season earlier, but the cost of doing so nearly bankrupted them and the club was saved only when new president Claudio Lotito cut an extraordinary deal with the government to pay off back taxes over the next 23 years. The club has an image problem due to the right-wing leanings of many of its ultra fans, a gallery to which striker Paolo di Canio unashamedly, if controversially, played with Fascist salutes.
It's a pity because in recent years, especially before coach Roberto Mancini left for Inter, Lazio have played some marvellous football.
Whatever the form of the two teams, the twice-yearly derby at the Stadio Olimpico is one of the most spectacular and deeply-felt occasions on the Italian sporting calendar. But beware: in recent seasons the rivalry has turned a bit septic and you will need to keep your wits about you.