Follow in the footsteps of icons like Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Frank Sinatra, Brigitte Bardot, Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck and live la dolce vita for a weekend. Stroll tree-lined Via Veneto, stopping for coffee at the Doney Gran Café (Via Veneto 145; 06 47 08 28 05), one of the favorite haunts of the stars. Or opt for the Café de Paris (Via Veneto 90; 06 48 85 284) across the street, where the paparazzi traditionally gathered to snap photographs of the rich and famous at the Doney.

Harry's Bar (Via Veneto 15; 06 48 46 43) is at the end of Via Veneto, and the Spanish Steps and Via Condotti, Rome's chicest shopping street, are also nearby. Eat a great meal at one of the restaurants mentioned above, then while away the evening sipping aged grappa and listening to top-notch jazz at Alexanderplatz (Via Ostia 9; 06 39 75 18 77) or Big Mama (Vicolo San Francesco a Ripa 18; 06 58 12 551), or consider tickets for the opera at Rome's famously ornate Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (Piazza Beniamino Gigli 7; 06 48 16 02 87).

If the weather is nice—and in Rome, it usually is—wander off Via Veneto to nearby Villa Borghese for a stroll. The villa is the largest green space inside city limits, and it includes the unforgettable Galleria Borghese (Piazza Scipione Borghese 5; 06 32 810), home to one of the most impressive collections of Renaissance paintings and sculptures in the world, all housed in the ancestral home of one of Rome's most important families.

-- Eric J. Lyman