There is an art to getting lost in the Eternal City

On a quiet corner in the backstreets near Piazza Navona, rampant tendrils of ivy screen the terracotta-coloured façade of a townhouse, stretching out in the sun like a contented cat. Whenever I reach that corner, I know have a choice. If I am pressed for time, I turn to the left, where I can take a (relatively) direct route to wherever I am going to. More often, however, I turn right, ready to get lost in the tight tangle of small streets at the heart of the city; it’s one of my favourite things about Rome.

Think Rome and you think big. This is a city cluttered with 2000 years of imposing architecture, the legacy of its role at the heart of the Roman Empire and then as one of the holiest cities in Christendom. From the ruins of the Forum to the soaring St Peter’s Basilica, the imposing Colosseum to the wedding cake-like Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, Rome does a nice line in monuments.

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Yet for many of us, Rome’s most enduring treasures are smaller in scale. In the Centro Storico – the city’s ancient heart, embraced by the gentle curve of the River Tiber – lies a maze of narrow streets a world away from the arrow-straight roads favoured by the Roman army’s legions. Walk along these cobblestoned streets – only the rashest Romans attempt to manoeuvre a vehicle through these tightly twisting alleys – and you discover a different city, a place where power and prestige are irrelevant.

Here it is all about the joy of discovery. Turn a corner and you may find a tucked-away wine bar, a compact shop window displaying shimmering silk scarves, a cafe with a counter lined with cannoli and pistachio biscuits. There will be centuries-old townhouses, their shutter-studded façades painted pink or orange or yellow, their entrances marked with a potted cypress or yucca or olive tree. There might even be one of the small fountains that are scattered around the city supplying drinking water for thirsty pilgrims.

Exploring these winding ways is not something to do when you are pressed for time. This snarl of streets is full of confusing twists and turns – even after countless visits to Rome I still take an occasional wrong turn, finding myself standing in a piazza that is not the one I was headed to.

If you have a free day, however, there are few joys greater than following your nose and enjoying the countless delightful details, from the rakish angle of a Vespa parked in an oh-so-narrow alley to a house with a mighty baroque portal, its front door marked by a pair of imposing lions-head knockers.

You don’t need to have a destination, although to prevent myself from unconsciously following familiar paths, I sometimes set out on a sort of scavenger hunt, one where I am collecting not objects but sights. For instance, I might pay a visit to my favourite animal sculptures, a list that includes a piece by Rome’s most famous sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini: the statue of an elephant carrying an obelisk in the Piazza della Minerva.

The point, of course, is not to take the most direct route, so after greeting that exquisite elephant I might detour along Via del Governo Vecchio, browsing the vintage shops before meandering through the Campo de’ Fiori.