Sunil Sethi: Roaming in Rome

AL FRESCO

Rome: In the 1950s Nancy Mitford, the sharp-tongued English novelist, annoyed Romans by comparing their ancient capital to a village: "...at heart Rome is a village, with its single post office, single railway station and life centred round the vicarage (St Peter's)." Adding insult to injury, she continued: "Surely no capital city can be quite so uninhibited about its underclothes and allow them to hang like flags across the streets..." And poured more vitriol in similar vein.

Mitford's withering view doesn't wash (if you'll pardon the bad pun) in the 21st century. For all its crammed layers of antiquity, its intricate network of avenues, alleys and piazzas large and small, Rome is a surprisingly modern and easy city to negotiate and it's people friendly, helpful and accustomed to tourists (between 7 and 10 million every year.) In the week I've just spent in the city, purely on pleasure bound, it seldom took more than a few minutes to figure out the efficient, comfortable and inexpensive transport system""a combination of buses, trams and the Metro (which isn't much bigger than Delhi's.)

One evening I had to get from the Borghese Gardens in the north to the hilly suburb of Gianicolo due west, across the Tiber, a distance of about 15 km, during peak traffic hours. I was in no tearing rush. Leaving my journey unplotted I decided on a bus-hopping spree, to test how long and complicated the trip might take. In fact, it was delightfully haphazard and sociable. It is true that I changed buses half a dozen times, thanks to enthusiastic fellow passengers, who misdirected me once or twice and risked being run over by homicidal motorbikes. But on each occasion, they fell upon my dog-eared map keenly, fell into loud arguments with each other over routes, got snapped at by bus drivers for causing delay and distraction but, in the end, I was passed on in a relay race to my destination""successfully and bang on time.

Along the way, people chatted, laughed and asked questions, exactly as on an Indian bus journey. The only difference was their stylishness: with practiced exaggerated gestures, they adjusted their wraparound Gucci shades, rummaged in jangling Versace handbags for bus tickets and pretended to lose their Dolce & Gabbana shirts in June's soaring temperature.

In no other European capital""London, Paris or Moscow""do people express a spontaneous social ease as naturally as Romans. In no smart city of the world""Paris, New York or Tokyo""are they as fashion-conscious. Up and down Via del Corso the Romans purposefully march, like legions from another age, checking out the latest designer fashions in shoes, jeans, suits and sunglasses, darting into cafes for quick double shots of espressos to bolster the financial drain that keeping up with changing fashions must entail.

And perhaps few people as a nation are as precise or unanimous in their diet. "In Italy it doesn't matter who you are, Gianni Agnelli or the local post master, you eat the same food. Only the quality of the ingredients may differ," a Roman friend always reminds me. Just after midday the country begins to shut down as everyone rushes home for a plate of fresh pasta followed by a siesta. Italy reopens only around 4 pm.

Rome is also the only world capital that contains a country, the Vatican, and the complexity of its workings can defeat experts. A well-placed friend got us in early one morning for an impeded view of the restored Sistine Chapel. (It took 20 years, from 1979 to 1999, longer than it took Michaelangelo to paint, and was paid for by a Japanese company that owns photographic copyright.) It is magnificent of course. But if you are queuing, be prepared for a wait of a couple of hours in a line that stretches three quarters of a mile. St Peter's is no "vicarage" in Nancy Mitford's teasing phrase.