Aventino

Three reasons to climb it

There are no bars up here, few shops, and hardly any traffic. What there is instead is shade, walled gardens and three things genuinely worth the walk.

The Giardino degli Aranci — properly Parco Savello, the orange garden — is a walled terrace of orange trees with a balcony looking over the whole city. The Tiber below, Trastevere opposite, and il Cupolone closing the view. That's what Romans call the dome of St Peter's, and you'll hear it far more often than the full name. Best free viewpoint in the city. Go an hour before sunset.

Next door, the keyhole. The Priory of the Knights of Malta has a gate on Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, and if you look through its keyhole a clipped hedge avenue frames the dome of St Peter's precisely, a kilometre and a half away. It sounds like a gimmick. It isn't. There's usually a short queue, it takes ten seconds, and it's free.

And Santa Sabina, beside the garden: a fifth-century basilica so plain and so complete that it's the clearest surviving picture of what an early Christian church actually looked like before anyone gilded anything. Its original carved cypress doors are still hanging, and one panel is among the earliest known images of the Crucifixion anywhere.

Circo Massimo, then uphill

The hill rises directly south of the Circus Maximus, between the centro and Testaccio.

Metro B to Circo Massimo, then five to ten minutes uphill. Gentle by Roman standards.

It sits usefully between two other places: Testaccio is ten minutes down the far side, and the Colosseum is about twenty minutes' walk north-east. The obvious half-day is the Aventine at sunset followed by dinner in Testaccio, and it's one of the better evenings in Rome.

A hotel with a garden, if that's your trip

Staying here suits a specific traveller: someone who wants quiet above everything, is content to walk or use Line B, and doesn't need a bar downstairs.

The hotels are mostly converted villas and monasteries with gardens, genuinely peaceful, often with a view, and priced accordingly. For a slower trip or an anniversary it's lovely.

For a first fast three-day visit it's too removed, and there's a practical catch: there is nowhere to eat on the hill itself. Every dinner means walking down and climbing back.