Monti: the village under the Forum
Rome's oldest rione, a fountain square, and the artisan lanes a stone's throw from the ruins. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Via dei Serpenti
Come down from Cavour and start at the top of this gently sloping street — independent shops, a couple of bars, the slow Monti pace. Mario Monicelli lived at number 29; the *rione* still feels like a neighbourhood that looks after its own.

2. Piazza della Madonna dei Monti
The living room of the *rione*. Locals sit on the steps of the late-1500s fountain in the late afternoon with a drink; you should too. This is the square to do nothing in for twenty minutes.

3. Via del Boschetto
Cut up this narrow lane for the workshops and small boutiques — vintage clothes, a bookbinder or two, jewellers working in the window. Browse without buying; nobody minds. It's the artisan spine of Monti.

4. Santa Maria dei Monti
Slip into the church that gives the square its name — a quiet Baroque interior, usually nearly empty, a cool dark pause from the lanes outside. Five minutes, then back out into the sun.

5. Salita dei Borgia
Find the stepped passage that ducks under a building toward the Forum side — a low vaulted tunnel with stairs, faintly secretive, that most people walk straight past. It drops you toward Via Cavour and the bigger Rome below.

6. San Pietro in Vincoli
End with Michelangelo's *Moses*, horns and all, in the church up the steps from Cavour. The marble is fierce and far less crowded than anything in the Vatican. From here the Colosseo Metro is a short walk downhill.

Monti: the village under the Forum