From the Colosseum, cutting across the ancient racecourse Circus Maximus, it is a wonderful stroll up the Aventino, one of Rome's seven hills, home to a dreamily upmarket residential district with deep-green trees shading its orange-ochre buildings.

BBC: A perfect day in Rome

Each day, when the first rays of sun warm its ochre walls, the doline comes alive with the sounds of the red-green macaw, as formations of these exotically-plumaged parrots dive and wheel below the lip, periodically alighting en masse to bicker, preen and survey their domain.

BBC: Livin�� la vida Bonito

Lovely colors abound: terra cotta, ochre, pink, white and yellow accented by gray, beige, black, green and brown shutters.

WSJ: Rome's Piazza Navona: Perfection, Squared | Masterpiece by Willard Spiegelman