Antica Roma Garden Suite Pyramid · Aventine

This is not a flat in a block: it is a detached single-storey house with its own private entrance and ninety square metres entirely yours. Recently renovated, with two double bedrooms and two bathrooms — four people have genuine room here, and nobody queues for the shower.

The surprise is the garden. Generous, furnished to be lived in, with plants and marble sculptures from the Roman period: breakfast outside is not a figure of speech. We are on the Aventine, right beside Testaccio, and it feels like having a piece of the city to yourself while staying fully central.

The Aventine is the Rome that breathes: gardens, ancient churches, the rose garden, the famous keyhole framing the dome of St Peter's. Below the hill lies Testaccio, the district where Romans go to eat, with its market and its old trattorias.

The Pyramid of Cestius and the metro line B station are a few minutes on foot; from there the Colosseum is two stops away. Trastevere is reached by crossing the Tiber on foot.