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ROME IS A CITY WITH ITS OWN DRAMA, BUT IT’S ALSO WHERE MANY FILMS HAVE CHOSEN TO SET THEIRS. WE TAKE A CINEMATIC TOUR OF THE CITY
 WORDS BY CATHERINE RICHARDS GOLINI
Rome does drama like London does drizzle. This cinematic city may have an industry that is decades old, but it is still thriving. The city’s international film festival, held last month, in October, was a glitzy, high-brow affair. The Auditorium Parco della Musica, a multi-venue arts complex designed by Renzo Piano (co-designer of Paris’s Pompidou Centre and the proposed Shard London Bridge) was the venue for several premieres including Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, starring Tim Roth and Shekar Kapur’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett (www..romacinemafest.org).
Contrary to rumours, Rome didn’t screen Sergio Leone’s classic Once Upon a Time in the West, but the Venice film festival did hold a spaghetti western retrospective in September. Fans of Leone should cross the river and spend an evening in Trastevere, birthplace of the man, who, according to Clint Eastwood, ‘’operacised the western’’.
Trastevere, where Leone met the prolific Italian film composer Ennio Morricone, is built on a smaller scale than much of central Rome with narrow medieval streets stuffed with tiny trattorie, bars and cafés. For excellent Roman cuisine and a stunning interior try Antica Pesa (via Garibaldi 18, www.anticapesa.it). Book ahead as it’s popular with locals and celebrity diners have included Robert de Niro, Tom ,Cruise and John Travolta. During the day, if you need a shot of something sweet, pop into Valzani, (via del Moro 37b) one of the best known pasticceria in the area. Their rich Sachertorte cake is a favourite of film director Nanni Moretti—who liked it so much he named his production company and cinema after it: Nuovo Sacher, Largo Ascianghi 1, Trastevere, www..sacherfilm.eu.
Nanni Moretti, director, producer, writer and actor, is one of the biggest names in contemporary Italian film and known outside of Italy thanks to the international success of Caro Diario (Dear Diary). The film, which picked up the Best Director award in Cannes, in 1994, is an autobiographical piece in three parts, the first of which sees Moretti roaming residential Rome on his Vespa, ruminating on change, cinema and society.
 If a tour on two wheels appeals, try Nerone (www.nerone.cc) who hire out vintage vespas with or without drivers. Or, if the weather or nerves dictate, take a tour of Rome’s best sights from the comfort of a classic Fiat 500. If you want to drive yourself you’ll be offered a modern scooter as the vespas have become collectors’ items. Along with a grand tour of the city’s famous sights, the company offer a tour of the city for lovers of cinema, which naturally includes a visit to the splendid Trevi Fountain of La Dolce Vita fame.
Forever associated with the lusty Anita Ekberg in Fellini’s classic film, the Trevi Fountain is a ballooning baroque fantasy packed into a pint-sized piazza. Anita Ekberg (who still lives in Italy, in Lazio, near Tuscany) apparently stood for hours in the cold water during filming without complaining, unlike her co-star Marcello Mastroianni, who donned a wetsuit and downed a bottle of vodka to keep warm. Art imitated life here: the scene was inspired by a photo of Ekberg cooling her feet in the fountain after an evening with celebrity photographer Pierluigi Praturlon some two years earlier.
 Today the water is off-limits, so to cool down try some of the best gelato in town at nearby San Crispino (via Panetteria 42), or to warm up try lunch-on-the-run at Da Michele’s (via del Umilità 31, www..michelepizza.it), the only kosher takeaway pizzeria in town: their quintessentially Roman “suppli” (fried rice balls) are delicious, or you can choose from more than 30 kinds of pizza (all dairy-free).
The world can also thank La Dolce Vita and Fellini for the term paparazzo, which translates roughly to mean a nuisance or a pest, a phenomenon which began in Rome with the likes of Tazio Secchiaroli and Rino ‘’the King’’ Barillari. In those days, most of the celebrity action unfolded along the Via Veneto, in the-then-uber-chic Café de Paris, Grand Caffé Dooney and Harry’s Bar. Now, though, you’re more likely to be rubbing shoulders with Italian politicians and an older set of tourists—for a younger, more contemporary café and bar scene head to Campo dei Fiori or Piazza Navona. Or for a more sophisticated night of cocktails, laid-back lounging and beautiful people try the H Club Doney at the Excelsior Hotel (Via Veneto 141).
 Budding photographers inspired by the city should take a half-day out to learn from the professionals. National Geographic photographer Antonio Boccaccio offers four-hour walking tours and a twilight trip of the city’s illuminated monuments (www.imaging-in-italy.com).
Starlet Jessica Simpson was similarly inspired by her trip to Rome last year and declared her intention to produce a book of her photos “...mostly of landscapes, of the sky, clouds....’’ though it was the nightly noises from her and John Mayer’s room at the Hotel de Russie (www.hotelderussie.it, via del Babuino 9) that proved more newsworthy. For a taste of the high life enjoy a buffet lunch, afternoon tea or an aperitivo at the hotel’s Stravinskij Bar (9am-1am).
 And, if you’re wondering where to go for a good night out, you could do worse than the Piper Club (via Tagliamento 9, www.myspace. com/piperroma), the coolest venue in town when it opened back in 1965. Originally designed as a cinema and apparently much-visited by Hendrix, it has hosted several legendary names in its time including The Who, Pink Floyd, Procul Harem and Genesis. Babyshambles played here last year and frontman Pete Doherty rounded off his Roman night by getting into a bloody scuffle with a paparazzo. Not quite the behaviour of the stars of the silver screen, but dramatic all the same. When in Rome…
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