Rome by Night in a Vintage Fiat 500, with a Driver

A vintage Fiat 500 with a driver, running a loop of the lit city with stops and stretches of slow driving. The car matters for a practical reason as much as a picturesque one. The centre after dark is largely free of traffic, so a small car can go where a coach cannot and stop where a coach would be moved on. The 500 is barely three metres long, which in these streets is the difference between arriving and circling. The route starts at Piazza del Popolo, passes Castel Sant'Angelo, reaches St Peter's Square and then climbs the Janiculum for the view from the Acqua Paola fountain. That hill has fired a cannon at midday every day since 1847, when Pius IX ordered it so that the church bells of Rome would ring together instead of separately. Then down past the Mouth of Truth and the Circus Maximus to the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine, on to Piazza Venezia, the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona, ending on the Pincio above the Spanish Steps. A stop at the Aventine keyhole is optional, and there is a pause at the Peroni store in Trastevere, for a beer brand founded in 1846. The meeting point is Piazza del Popolo 11, in front of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum. There is no sign: the driver arrives with the car. Allow up to ten minutes.