Here are the available villas for rental in Rome.

Tuscany from the comfort of a caravan

The usual image of a holiday in Tuscany is a stylish, secluded villa set in the picture-postcard scenery of the Italian hills.
But a villa is not to everyone's taste. They can be expensive and isolated, with nothing for children to do and only available in weekly packages.
So put aside your pretensions, pack your shorts and head for a caravan in the hills.
Of course you're not allowed to call them caravans but that's what they are - even if they don't have wheels.
The poshest have fully-equipped kitchens, two or more bedrooms, shower room and dinky wooden decks outside, with dining table and parasol.
The campsites are well planted with lots of trees so you aren't immediately aware of sharing your Tuscan idyll with 1,000 or more caravans and tents.
Your holiday home is billed as a "modern living space with an open air feel".
There's certainly a feeling of the outdoors - in reality, there is little privacy. You are living your holiday in a Big Brother bubble.
Walking past a row of caravans is like hospital visiting - you don't want to look at other people but can't help a sneaky peek into their personal lives.
On a holiday parc (as they are called) you can hear your neighbours chatting and eating and you see their washing on the line. But if you like people and you like the outdoors, that's not a problem and you can't help but make friends along the way. ... more

Rome isn't seen in a day

Turning out a cupboard recently, I came across an old diary, an account I'd written of falling in love with Rome. Just 19, I had escaped for a week from a grim university gap-year job. After the rigours of teaching in Switzerland, arriving in Rome was like falling into a champagne bubble bath.
I bought frivolous clothes in the Via Condotti (a linen dress for not much more than £1!); hammered the sights, fending off lascivious postcard vendors; watched incomprehensible Italian films; and discovered, to me, the brand new joys of pizza and mozzarella.
I seem to have remembered bits of Julius Caesar in the Forum and to have coped with Roman buses: 'You have to battle your way to the door at least two stops ahead, shrieking "Permesso" and sticking your elbow into people's chests while treading on their toes.' An English boarding school education had clearly not been entirely wasted.
Rome had had much the same effect on my husband, who first visited the city as a student. Last month we decided to make the most of a long weekend and head back together.
But first we took a vow. To imagine that you could do Rome in one weekend would be sheer folly. Pavement pounding was out. Instead, we would spoil ourselves. We would stroll in the late autumn sunshine, each choosing one or two favourite places to revisit. We would eat good, carefully chosen meals. We would take taxis if we felt like it. And if the Via Condotti designers' alley proved short of £1 dresses, at least we could enjoy window-shopping. ... more

Enjoy all the comforts of Rome

The last time I visited Rome was with an orange rucksack, two school mates and about 50 lire.

That was 18 years ago and my fortunes have changed. This time my girlfriend and I stayed at the lovely four-star hotel Locarno in the city centre and I was even able to buy a square meal.
Unlike myself, has worn well. Its best attractions are more than 2,000 years old and age cannot wither her.
I spent four nights in the art deco Hotel Locarno which opened in 1925 but looks 50 years older. It had a lovely sheltered outdoor courtyard as a venue for breakfast and lunch. A large double room cost e200 (£132) a night. It was worth the money.
Just around the corner was the five-star Hotel du Russie where George Clooney and Brad Pitt stayed during the filming of Ocean's Twelve recently.
There is no doubt the adoption of the euro has equalised prices in . But Rome, always more expensive than rural towns, used to offer some bargains for fans of designer clobber.
Those expecting cut-price designer clothes from Gucci and D&G in the eternal city will be disappointed. For instance, the cheapest Fendi handbag I saw was e580. That's about £385 (and it was the size of a pint glass).
St Peter's Basilica is rightly famous and, in my opinion, the single most impressive building on the planet. It is impossible to describe the richness of its marble, paintings and sculptures (including Michelangelo's Il Pieta) in a few words. It must be seen.
Free guides will escort you around the Vatican building where the bones of Jesus's right-hand man lie about seven metres below your feet, found in 1942 by archaeologists. Unlike many other holy "relics" it appears they really are the remains of the Apostle crucified after AD 64.
The Pope is very frail now and rarely says Sunday mass in St Peter's Square.
Unlike Paris, Rome hasn't been ruined by traffic. The Piazza del Popolo has been pedestrianised and the three main shopping streets leading from it have restricted access to cars.
It means the air is cleaner and you can shop in peace. Eating dinner and sipping coffee al fresco is so much more enjoyable there (in temperatures of 30C) than in the UK. ... more

Rome's darkest age

From the Mail on Sunday

We were 50 feet beneath the earth in catacombs off the Appian Way, looking at a small stone coffin a few feet away in the gloom.
Some 1,700 years before, St Sebastian - the one you see portrayed pierced by arrows - was originally laid to rest in this casket, not far from where the bodies of the disciples, Peter and Paul, were secreted briefly during an imperial persecution.
So where was he now? The archaeological guide pointed directly upwards, to the altar high above us at ground level in the baroque basilica. 'I can assure you,' she said firmly, 'that the bones that were here are the ones that are there, right over our heads.' The cheery African nun by my side gasped, and made it clear she thought it was time to head for the light of day.
Rome's dark corners have that effect on you. Out of nowhere you feel yourself touched by the heady blast of history. The Eternal City is full of stories, as befits somewhere continuously inhabited for almost three millennia.
Tales of early martyrs, and the vivid signs of their lives which we can see and touch today, often take a back seat to Rome's glitzier attractions.
It's a shame. There are characters here that make Hannibal Lecter look like Bob the Builder . . . and you find them in the most unexpected of places.
The Arch of Constantine, a wonderful piece of triumphant architecture by the Colosseum, is a good starting point for a black tour of Rome.
In the 4th Century Constantine turned pagan Rome over to Christianity and paved the way for the power of the Catholic Church. He built the first basilica to honour St Peter. His mother, Helena, visited the Holy Land, supposedly bringing back fragments of the true cross and staircase which Jesus climbed in Pilate's house, both of which can still be seen.
So why is one of the fathers of the modern church who founded Istanbul as his own capital, Christian Constantinople, hardly known today? Because Constantine was also a brutal human being who had his son executed, probably for little reason, and ordered his wife to be smothered to death in her baths. Apparently he was unfailingly kind to Christians though - more than can be said of his pagan predecessor Valerian.
Walk from the Colosseum to the stone boat which marks the entrance to the park of Villa Celimontana and you begin the most shocking martyr's journeys in the world. ... more

An audience with the Pope

While I'd like to say that my 10-year-old son's desire to visit Rome was prompted by his flying start to Latin, unfortunately, I know where his knowledge of ancient Rome - special subject: slaves and fighting - came from.
It started when Cosmo saw the film Gladiator five times on a long-distance flight.
I spent six months hanging out in Rome as a gap-year teenager and find that whenever I return to the city I still know all the bus routes, the cafes, the cut-price shoe shops (little changes in the Eternal City).
My son's must-sees included the classic sights - the Forum, the face-that-bites-your-hand-off (aka the Bocca della Verita) and the Coliseum. But he also wanted to see the Pope.
As we swept in from the airport on the high-speed train, Rome positively sparkled - a result of massive grants to polish up the city for the Millennium.
When I last visited the Piazza del Popolo, it was like Hyde Park Corner without the traffic lights.
Now, it's a pedestrianised square, so you can cross the piazza to see Caravaggio's two paintings in the Santa Maria del Popolo more safely.
We were staying at the Hotel de Russie, which has been brought back to life by Rocco Forte and his sister, Olga Polizzi, who created its classically cool look.
Open for just three years, this is a world-class hotel - something that Rome has been missing since the glory days of the Hassler.
As soon as Cosmo checked out the Russie, he abandoned his rugby training kit and changed into a uniform of blue shirt, chinos and blazer and refused to wear anything else for the next four days. Dressed to his satisfaction, we hit the streets. ... more