WHEN it comes to Europe's dazzling tourist attractions, Italy easily competes with any country. But Rome, many insist, holds the trump card.
The scale of the city is grand. The history and its buildings, rich. And, for the visitor, the sidewalks and the serpentine cobblestone lanes are pedestrian-friendly.
Eyes are magnetised by the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, the magnificent piazzas, the catacombs and the sepia tones that bathe the city's crumbling elegance at sunset.
If tourism has a birthplace, scholars trace its evolution to the Eternal City.
The world's first guidebook was complied in the 4th century AD. Called The Curium, it listed the great buildings of the city and recommended a sequence for visiting them.
To a certain extent, Rome was designed for the tourist trade. In his brief to architect Bernini, Pope Alexander II directed that the city's portals and piazzas should be designed to impress.