Rome for The Slow Weekenders: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

The balustrade above Piazza del Popolo for the late light on the domes, with a bench and the water clock in the trees behind.

A negroni in the terraced garden of the hotel under the Pincio, with orange trees and no traffic; the price buys an hour of quiet.

An amaro bar with a Roman kitchen, carbonara and a long list of bitters to finish; dinner at eight and in bed by ten, as planned.

Two hours by timed ticket with Bernini's Apollo and Daphne and six Caravaggios in a garden villa; the only queue of the weekend, and worth it.

A Parioli dining room with a fireplace grill and a menu from the Marche, lunch stretching into the afternoon with a bottle from the cellar.

An art-deco bar with a courtyard and a roof terrace, a cocktail before an early dinner; the lift is the original cage.

Twelve hectares on the slope of the Gianicolo, a Japanese garden, bamboo, and benches under palms; Sunday morning is the quiet hour.

A long lunch on the hill above Trastevere, carbonara with a twist and a cellar of six hundred labels; the walk down afterwards is all downhill.

The twelfth-century mosaics catching the late light, the square with its fountain and its loiterers; vespers at six, if you feel like staying.

The flower and fruit stalls setting up under Giordano Bruno's statue, a coffee at the bar on the corner, and nothing else before the taxi.

Thermal pools, saunas and a garden in a Roman villa's grounds ten minutes from the airport; the day pass before the flight is the whole idea.

Fish on the harbour at Fiumicino, spaghetti with clams and a white from the Castelli, with the planes going over; the terminal is ten minutes away.