Featuring a striking yellow and brown colour scheme and mid-century design detail that pays homage to the coffee-growing nations, Tazza d’Oro has been an unmissable presence in the dense network of ancient streets around the Pantheon since 1948. The atmosphere is friendly, the coffee cheap and excellent, and the aroma from the roasting and grinding intoxicating.

In Rome one often finds that the usual rule about mass popularity not necessarily being an assurance of quality or authenticity doesn’t apply. Giolitti is a case in point. Locals and tourists queue day and night to get their tongues around the slightly sweeter but still delicious ice cream they’ve been flogging here since 1890. You can also sit down and savour their pleasingly old-fashioned sundaes and coppas in the large Art Nouveau (known as Liberty style in Italy) dining room. The exterior mounted lettering is some of the nicest in the city.

All free, all wonderful and another of those very Roman juxtapositions of the ancient and the modern. Climb the sloping steps on Piazza d’Aracoeli to escape the petrol-fuelled mania below and emerge into a rational world of calm, order and elegance. Michelangelo’s piazza is one of the joys of Rome, which offers great views across the city and particularly fine free snooping directly into the adjoining ancient Roman Forum. On its own this is stimulating enough but we also recommend a visit to the Capitoline Museum (Tue-Sun: 9am-8pm), situated on the piazza, for an intoxicating immersion in the classical world. This alas is not free, but is worth every euro.

Few establishments can boast as seedy a past as this place. Located above an old-school Italian pizzeria, in the 1950s it served as an illegal casino, and in the 1980s was owned by notorious local gangster Alphonse Gangitano, who ran it as a secret high-end gentleman’s club for his associates. Today this cosy, wood-lined space is a local wine bar par excellence, stocking over 200 boutique wines and serving excellent bistro fare to the sound of a great soundtrack. The Gangitano-era faux baroque décor and billiard table remain, but the atmosphere is much less sinister.

Before the advent of single origins, syphons and soy milk, the coffee world was a simple place, one where full-bodied, dark-roast espresso and opinionated Italians reigned. For over 20 years, Mario’s approach to coffee has rejected trend and remained committed to the same uncompromising no-nonsense approach that established it as an icon during the 1980s and 1990s. The distinctive red neon signage, poster-filled walls and waistcoated waiters are marks of an era when things were not so rushed and a lazy half day spent over a few espressos and a book was time well spent.

Surrounded by peaceful rolling lawns and acres of established gardens, the largely untouched building was built in 1861 on a large tract of bushy parkland on a sweeping bend of the Yarra River. The nuns have long since departed and in recent years the convent has blossomed as a unique arts and cultural project, hosting a slow food farmers’ market, sourdough bakery, cafés, bars and a range of creative studios and gallery spaces.