The Aventine is the hill Rome keeps for itself — residential, walled, and quiet in a way no other hill in the centre manages, with two of the city's best small wonders hidden behind garden gates. Start at the top and let it fall toward the river.
Three kilometres, best in the morning. From Circo Massimo, climb to the Giardino degli Aranci — a grove of bitter-orange trees laid out behind Santa Sabina, with a belvedere (terrace view) that frames the whole city. Next to it, Santa Sabina is the plainest great church in Rome and all the better for it; the carved cypress door at the back holds the oldest Crucifixion scene anywhere, and you'll likely have it to yourself.
Then the trick the hill is famous for. At the Priorato di Malta, put your eye to the keyhole in the green door: St Peter's dome appears dead-centre at the end of a clipped avenue. It never fails.
Walk down past Sant'Anselmo to the Roseto Comunale, the rose garden terraced toward the Circus Maximus, then back to Circo Massimo on Metro B.
