The Italian capital has always been particularly famous for being an expensive city, but if you like Italian culture then you can enjoy the best that Rome has to offer for next to nothing. The city houses countless churches (the Piazza Santa Maria), monuments and galleries (Piazza dell'Accademia di San Luca) that are available to visit for free, and if you feel you have exhausted those, then step just outside the city center and take a relaxing walk through the luscious greens of the Villa Ada.

Various; Rome City Centre

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Rome's zoo is being gradually improved and has been renamed the Bioparco. A greater emphasis is now being placed on its ecological and environmental credentials. I visited it on a Wednesday afternoon. Apart from three Russians who asked me for directions to the exit, I was the only visitor. I think the animals were glad to see me. If you like wolves there are lots here. Very wolfish and sleek. Apart from its intrinsic merits, it's one of the few places in Rome where you can get away from the crowds.

Viale del Giardino Zoologico. Trams 3 and 19, plus a short walk.

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Try the elegant grounds of the Villa Doria Pamphilj up at Monteverde. It glories in the splendid, and appropriate, nickname of Belrespiro, which is untranslatable but might be rendered as “lovely respite”.

Via di San Pancrazio, Monteverde

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