The Aventine: the orange garden and the keyhole
An orange grove over the river, a famous keyhole, and the oldest doors in Rome. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Giardino degli Aranci (Parco Savello)
Walk straight to the far wall. A grove of bitter-orange trees opens onto a *belvedere* (terrace view) with the whole city across the river and St Peter's dome to the right. Come in the morning, before the coach groups find the gate.

2. Basilica di Santa Sabina
Next door, the plainest great church in Rome — a 5th-century basilica with a flat painted ceiling and tall windows of carved selenite. Find the cypress door at the back: one panel holds the oldest carved Crucifixion anywhere. Pull it open.

3. Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta
The small square Piranesi laid out, ringed with obelisks and military trophies in stucco. Quiet to the point of empty. The reason to come is on the far side.

4. The Knights of Malta keyhole
The green door of the *Priorato di Malta*. Put your eye to the keyhole: St Peter's dome sits perfectly framed at the end of a hedged avenue, three countries away. There's usually a short queue of one. Worth it.

5. Sant'Anselmo and the rose slope
Down past the Benedictine abbey of Sant'Anselmo, where the monks sing Vespers in the evening. The lane curls down toward the Roseto Comunale — the city rose garden on the slope, open and at its best in May.

6. Roseto Comunale
The municipal rose garden terraced down the hillside opposite the Circus Maximus, on ground that was once the Jewish cemetery — a plaque marks it. Free, and only fully out in May and June; the rest of the year, walk the terrace for the view and carry on down.

The Aventine: the orange garden and the keyhole