Rome for The Thrill Seekers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Five hundred and fifty-one steps to the lantern, the last stretch leaning with the curve of the dome; last entry an hour before closing.

The climb from Trastevere up the Gianicolo for the whole city at sunset, then down the steps past the Fontanone with the swifts.

A big-portioned Prati kitchen two streets from the Vatican walls, pasta and a plate of grilled meat; the recovery meal, then an early night.

An hour up the Via Sacra, the Roman basalt road to the summit at 949 metres, for the two crater lakes and the sea; bus from Anagnina.

Down the crater wall to the lake below the papal palace for a swim in cold volcanic water; kayaks and pedalos for hire on the shore.

A trattoria near the station that does the Roman classics properly, oxtail and a bottle of Cesanese; the train back lands you here.

Sunday is car-free: rent a bike at the café and ride the basalt road out past the catacombs and the Villa dei Quintili to the aqueducts.

Twenty kilometres of galleries on four levels, the crypt of the popes and half a million graves; the guided visit is forty minutes underground.

Carbonara finished in the pecorino wheel in a wood-panelled room full of photographs; the plate you have earned after thirty kilometres.

The park loop at first light, past the lake and the temples to the terrace above Piazza del Popolo; six kilometres with no traffic lights.

The baths where Romans ran, wrestled and swam, the walls still thirty metres high; the gravel paths are empty at opening.

A sandwich of slow-cooked beef and chicory from the market stall, eaten at the counter; the Piramide metro to the airport train is five minutes away.