The area from Piazza del Popolo to Piazza Venezia and from the Spanish Steps to the Tiber is the medieval centre of Rome, the Centro Storico. It also comprises the Reinassance Quarter, a dense, wedge-shaped area past Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, but that area ? somewhat different in character ? is described below. Here, however, is mixture of tourists and Romans in an area

Lively and exuberant, crowded day and night, yet retaining its historic charm; the financial and political centre of the modern capital; and large modernised apartments in centuries-old palazzo that make it a convenient and exciting area in which to live.

Centro Storico refers to an area that included the Campus Martius in ancient Rome. This district dominated Rome in the middle ages, and does so today. Here are Piazza del Popolo, the entrance to Rome for medieval pilgrims from the ancient Via Flaminia; beautiful Piazza di Spagna, dominated from above by the 16th century Trinit? dei Monti and from below by 20th century tourists; Piazza della Rotonda, home to the Pantheon and ending point for a warren of narrow medieval streets; and Piazza Navona, begun as a stadium about AD 86 by Emperor Domitian, but from the middle ages to the last century the city's main market square.

Modernised throughout the millennia, but somehow escaping the periodic frenzies of destructive development, the piazzas and side streets of the Centro Storico are much as they have been for centuries, and today's modern shops and restaurants merely take the place of many that came before.

Avoid the people at the Termini train station who claim to be tourism officials and offer you a room. They usually lead you to pretty seedy Rome accommodation for which you end up paying more than the official rate.

You can find a cheap and yet clean and comfortable hotel in the city centre of Rome. You don't need to spend a fortune to stay in Rome because cheap hotels are just there, waiting to accommodate you! For this reason it is essential to buy a good Guide to Rome or visit an online guide just like RomaClick.com.