Italy is at its best in spring (April-May) and autumn (October-November). During these seasons, the scenery is beautiful, the temperatures are pleasant and there are relatively few crowds. Try to avoid August, as this is the time that most Italians take their vacations, and many shops and businesses are closed as a result.

The ski season generally lasts from December to late March; sea swimming is best between June and September; and July and September are the best months for walking in the Alps. The further south you go, the longer you can linger into November and December without feeling the pinch of winter. Italy's multitude of festivals and traditional events may be a factor in planning your visit. Easter, in particular, is celebrated fervently, and every second town has a festive Saint's day.

Those on a tight budget will find eating and sleeping in Italy expensive. Prudent backpackers might squeeze by on around US$35 a day if they stay in hostels, make their own sandwiches, avoid indulging in alcohol and don't visit too many museums. A room in a pensione or hotel, one restaurant meal per day and occasional visits to museums will cost close to US$50 per day. If you want to stay in comfortable hotels, eat out regularly in restaurants and visit lots of museums and galleries, you should budget at least US$100 a day; hiring a car will double your expenses. Be aware that Italy has more luxury hotels, expensive restaurants and shops to die for than you can shake a Gold Amex card at, so be prepared to stretch your budget if you are easily tempted.

Banks are the most reliable places to change travellers' cheques, and generally offer the best rates; shop around for the lowest commission deals and the shortest queues. Credit cards are widely accepted in Italy. Visa is the easiest card with which to obtain cash advances from banks.

Service charges are included in your restaurant bill, so you are not expected to tip. It is common practice, however, to leave a small amount. In bars, Italians will usually leave any small change as a tip, but this is by no means obligatory. Be aware that prices in Italian bars and cafes double (sometimes even triple) if you sit down. Tipping taxi drivers is not necessary, but your hotel porter will expect a little something.

Rome - St. Peter's Square and Basilica, with the Colosseum, Rome's main attraction. It's the largest church in the world, built on the burial place of St. Peter, who was killed in Nero's circus nearly 2,000 years ago. Michelangelo himself designed the cupola, and Bramante the interior and facade, of the building. The colonnades encircling the square are by Bernini; the obelisk in the center was transported from Egypt under the Emperor Caligula (he who promoted his favorite horse to senator), and the two circular fountains, perfectly shaped, pour water piped from the Castelli mountains. Main eye-catcher inside the Basilica--to your right, when entering--is Michelangelo's Pieta (now in a glass case as protection against people and pollution).

The Vatican Museums and Galleries ("Musei e Gallerie Vaticani"), at Viale del Vaticano, a five-minute walk from the square or the metro station Ottaviano, are actually a combination of ten art galleries, archaeological and church museums. They house perhaps more treasures than any other gallery or museum in the world. Among the most important sites here are the Egyptian Museum (mummies, statues, busts of Queen Tuia, mother of Ramses II); the Pio-Clementino Museums (named after two popes, Pius and Clement; highlights are the Apollo of Belvedere and the famous Laocöon, fighting with his two sons against sea serpents); the Etruscan Museum (with spectacular tombs and bronzes); the Raphael Rooms (formerly a papal apartment, today world's largest collection of paintings and murals by Raphael; the chief masterpiece is the painting The School of Athens); the Sistine Chapel, with its overwhelming ceiling painted by Michelangelo.

The Colosseum is Rome's most ancient and imposing masterwork of classic architecture, built in the first century. It could once hold 50,000 spectators who attended gladiator fights, mock sea battles, and other spectacular performances. It is open daily, 9am to sunset

Sightseeing Frank Bruni - The love-it-or-hate-it Vittoriano monument, that late 19th-century behemoth that towers ostentatiously over Piazza Venezia, is making a fresh bid for respect, or at least affection. A visitor would be charitable -- and wise -- to give the big white lug another chance. Colonnades and terraces that were once closed to the public are now open, and there is expanded space for the building's various exhibits. Best of all, there is a new cafe, perched high in the sky, that affords one of the best center-city views of Rome. The Vittoriano is open daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in November and December. Free.

Other lovely views that are especially inspiring this time of year, when there is a hint of color on some of the city's trees, include the bit of Borghese Park just above Piazza del Popolo, easily reached on foot. The Vittoriano is visible in one direction, St. Peter's in another and the domes of countless churches in between.

For serious walkers who want to venture beyond Rome's most tried and true attractions, a weekend stroll along Via Appia Antica that begins at the entrance of Parco dell'Appia Antica and proceeds for a few (or more than a few) miles is highly recommended. This ancient Roman street combines a pastoral landscape with scattered remains from centuries ago, and it is closed to cars on Sunday, when you can find plenty of Romans biking, pushing babies in strollers or even running -- an otherwise uncommon Roman pastime. Information in English about the park can be found at www.parco appiaantica.org.

The centerpiece of Piazza Navona, Bernini's ''Fountain of the Four Rivers,'' is looking spiffier than it has in a while, thanks to a late-summer cleaning that took away some of the weeds and mold. Linger a bit, then treat yourself to a change of pace from gelato, instead getting one of the splendid frullati or centrifughe (blended fruit and vegetable drinks) at nearby Da Quinto, Via di Tor Millina, 15, (39-06) 686 5657, open daily from around 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. and sometimes later.

Where to Stay - Hotel Ponte Sisto, Via dei Pettinari, 64, (39-06) 686 3100, fax (39-06) 683 01712, www.hotelpontesisto.it, opened little more than a year ago, and it wears its youth well: it looks brighter, fresher and less dated than many Roman hotels. It also has an unbeatable location astride Via Giulia, perhaps the most elegant residential street in the historic center, and just steps from the Tiber River and Trastevere. Although some of the 103 rooms are not very big -- indeed, a single room is prohibitively small -- they are spotless and well appointed, with gleaming marble-and-tile bathrooms, and there is a lovely, blissfully quiet courtyard for guests. A standard double, with breakfast, is about $310 around this time of year, though there are often better deals simply for the asking.

Right behind the Pantheon, in an area that is lively day and night without ever feeling quite as chaotic as Campo dei Fiori or Piazza di Spagna, is the Hotel Santa Chiara, Via di Santa Chiara, 21, (39-06) 687 2979, fax (39-06) 687 3144, www.albergosantachiara.com. Its 98 rooms are decorated simply, but with an eye toward comfort, and are surprisingly spacious. While it does not have a restaurant, it does have a bar and provides breakfast to guests. A standard double in November or December is about $200, though people staying longer than a few days can sometimes get a better rate.

Budget: You pretty much get what you pay for in Rome, which means that there is no such thing as luxury or extraordinary comfort on the cheap. But the Hotel Smeraldo, Vicolo dei Chiodaroli, 9, (39-06) 687 5929 or 609 2121, fax (39-06) 688 05495, www.hotelsmeraldoroma.com, has an amazingly central location for the price and has recently undergone extensive renovations. It has 50 rooms; just be sure to ask for one that has been recently spruced up. A standard double runs about $114.

Luxury: It does not get much better than the Hotel de Russie, Via del Babuino, 9, (39-06) 328 881, fax (39-06) 328 88888, www.roccofortehotels.com, which has not only common areas and rooms (125 plus 31 suites) decorated with a pared-down contemporary elegance but also gardens, an expansive spa and fitness center right in the heart of Rome. A standard double is more than $500.

A year ago, the Hotel d'Inghilterra, at Via Bocca di Leone, 14, (39-06) 699 811, fax (39-06) 699 22243, www.hoteldinghilterraroma.it, opened a new restaurant, Café Romano, that has become an extremely popular Roman meeting place and has given the hotel a newly fashionable edge. Among its 98 rooms, which tend to an antique look and feel, a standard double runs about $310 and up around this time of year.

Since Romans like to dine al fresco, and many restaurants indulge that appetite with open-air seating areas infinitely more charming than anything closer to the kitchen, the challenge in late autumn and winter is to find places that are as appealing inside as out.

Campo, Piazza della Cancelleria, 64, (39-06) 683 01162, fax (39-06) 682 11847, fits the bill. Its dazzlingly white, minimalist dining room is unusually contemporary for a Roman restaurant, and its food is an interpretation of classic Italian cooking that feels as up-to-the-minute as the décor. A simple white-fleshed fish is gussied up in a textured stole of latticed potato slices. A basil pesto manages to be lighter than its forebears but no less flavorful. And the diligent service is comparable to what one finds in a restaurant twice the price. Dinner for two with wine is about $90. Open nightly for dinner, with lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

For an even more intriguing atmosphere, Ketumbar, Via Galvani, 24, phone and fax (39-06) 573 05338, has turned its series of dimly lighted cocktail lounges and dining rooms into a Gothic-cum-Asia fantasia. The food combines Japanese and Italian influences -- steamed meat-and-vegetable ravioli in soy sauce, noodles topped with duck and fried parsnip -- as if the owners hired a terrific sushi chef and sent him to a culinary Berlitz. The results, truth be told, are perhaps more interesting than drop-dead scrumptious. But the scene, featuring insanely attractive Romans from their mid-20's to late 40's, cannot be beat, and Ketumbar is the perfect reason for a short cab ride to Testaccio, a neighborhood just outside the center that has become increasingly hip. Dinner for two with wine: $95. Open nightly.

Speaking of hip and speaking of sushi, F.I.S.H. (Fine International Seafood House), Via dei Serpenti, 16, (39-06) 4782 4962, is one of the city's hottest new restaurants. A bit too tiny and a bit too sleek, it redeems those shortcomings with pitch-perfect service and first-rate sushi and sashimi, along with an eclectic selection of other seafood (swordfish tandoori, calamari stuffed with curried couscous) and, of course, pasta. Dinner for two with drinks or wine is about $100. Lunch and dinner daily except Monday.

Inventively sauced pasta is just one attraction of Il Desiderio Preso per la Coda, Vicolo della Palomba, 23, (39-06) 683 07522. This little-known hideaway near the Piazza Navona is serious about its food (rigatoni with porcini mushrooms, risotto with fresh figs, carpaccio of sea bass) and its extremely reasonably priced wine and is enticingly whimsical about everything else. The plates are a kaleidoscopic, mismatched collection, and the restaurant's card advertises locations not only in New York and Paris but also in Mombasa and Hanoi -- none of which exist. Dinner for two with wine: $70. Open nightly except Monday.

For a typical Roman trattoria with simple but better than average food, Crispi, Via Francesco Crispi, 4, (39-06) 474 4840, is a good choice. It features truly al dente pasta, with the range of time-tested toppings -- clams, carbonara, an amatriciana that will bring you to your knees -- and is just five minutes by foot from the Spanish Steps. Lunch or dinner for two, with wine: $50. Open daily.

For something lighter, simpler and quicker, L'Insalata Ricca, Largo dei Chiavari, 85/86, (39-06) 688 03656, has scores of inventive salads, with ingredients like lobster, spinach, hearts of palm and bufala mozzarella. There are locations throughout Rome; this one, near Campo dei Fiori, is perhaps the largest and best. Lunch or dinner for two with wine, if you stick to the big salads and fabulous bread, should not be more than $30. Open daily.