To Rome with Love: the romance of a city At one point, Allen even comments ironically on the way spectacle and romance tend to merge in Rome, when he stages the scene of a meeting between newly-wed Milly and her actor idol Luca Salta in cute little Piazza Mattei - famous for its Fontana delle Tartarughe, or Turtle Fountain. The joke is that Salta is filming here, and Milly wanders onto the set without quite realising that it's a set (in the same way as she fails to realise that the scuzzy Salta is a long way from the romantic hero he plays). Rome does this: it blurs the borders between reality and theatre. I once had a similar experience, arriving at the scenic Giardino degli Aranci (otherwise known as Parco Savello) on the Aventine Hill to find it full of wandering medieval friars. It was only when I saw the arc lights, and noticed that some poor third assistant director was tying oranges to the orange trees with wire (it wasn't the orange season) that I realised I'd strayed into a film. Another thing that makes Rome perfect for lovers is the lightness with which it wears its two-and-a-half millennia of history. You never feel as if you're being lectured to, or being kept out by guards and fences. True, it's not as easy to get into the Roman Forum at night as Allen makes it look in one key scene, when the spark of a thunderstorm ignites the flame of passion between Monica (Ellen Page) and Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) as they shelter inside a ruined temple. In fact, it's positively off limits. But nobody will stop you from playing hide and seek any time of day or night among Hadrian's granite columns in the portico of the Pantheon, or perching on a Roman marble fragment on the grassy knoll just the other side of Via Celio Vibenna from the Colosseum, watching the full moon rise above the world's most famous amphitheatre as the last tram glides by. Sure, it helps that the climate is mild well into the autumn, it helps that the spectacular sunsets for which the Eternal City is famous turn its walls and domes and church towers to lambent gold, and it helps too that Rome has an embarrassment of panoramic points, like the Fontanone ("big fountain") above Trastevere, from which to contemplate, hand in hand, a cityscape that is pretty from just about every angle. But it's the city's refusal to make a big thing out of its cultural riches or to package its romantic corners that, paradoxically, makes it so attractive to lovers, and so primed for love. Fellini understood this when he set the bonding of Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg against the backdrop of the Trevi Fountain. Everyone remembers Ekberg's nocturnal wade into the cascading waters, but watch the scene again, in full, and you will see that the main point Fellini is making about the fountain is not just that it's ridiculously romantic, but that it's ridiculously romantic because its huge scale is so unlikely in this location, and it comes as such a surprise when, turning a corner in a warren of medieval lanes, you stumble upon it. And then there's the fact that even today, if you go to the Trevi Fountain as Marcello and Anita did just before dawn and out of season, you'll have the place pretty much to yourself. To see Rome at its most romantic, it's worth taking one piece of advice at least from the restless party animals of Fellini's iconic film: sleep all morning, breakfast at lunchtime and emerge late in the afternoon, just as all the other visitors are starting to think about dinner. As sunset turns the city to fire, Rome changes its dusty daytime garb and becomes the city of lovers. Woody Allen's 'To Rome With Love" opens across the UK today Five hidden romantic spots To Rome with Love ticks off all the most famous lovers" locations; here are some of the lesser-known love spots. Monti Just as picturesque as Trastevere, but still relatively unexplored by visitors, this centro storico district is a maze of pretty cobbled lanes lined with craft shops, wine bars and boho boutiques. Cute Piazza degli Zingari is worth searching out: you can sit on a bench and share a tub of gelato from the newest branch of the natural ice-cream purveyor Fatamorgana (gelateriafatamorgana.it). Hotel Eden Rooftop Bar Of all Rome's panoramic perches, this is one of the most cocooned and exclusive. From the top-floor bar of the five-star Hotel Eden (lemeridien.com) on Via Ludovisi, the view stretches over the Villa Medici gardens and city rooftops and cupolas to St Peter's - and they mix a mean dry martini. Orto Botanico Rome's Orto Botanico (Largo Cristina di Svezia 24; full entrance €8/£6.40) isn't a patch on Kew Gardens for exotic plants, but it's a lovely spot nevertheless, draping itself across the slope that descends from the Gianicolo hill to Trastevere. Climb to the Japanese Garden and you get the same view as the lovers on the Terrazza del Gianicolo above - but without the jostling for space. Protestant Cemetery This leafy, quiet, soulful place of rest in the shadow of a magnificent and incongruous pyramid is Romantic with a capital R but also with a small one. Stroll hand in hand in the company of the spirits of Keats and Shelley, plus myriad other earlier travellers who came to Rome seeking a romantic ideal. Piccolo Arancio This little upmarket trattoria is just around the corner from the Trevi Fountain but off the main tourist drag. In fact, few ever head up this quiet lane to discover a little cobbled piazza partly occupied by the outside tables of "The Little Orange." It's a good place for a tête-à-tête in the heart of the centro storico, and the Roman staples such as tonnarelli cacio e pepe or saltimbocca alla romana are excellent (Vicolo Scanderbeg 112. Open lunch and dinner, closed Mon. Average €35 (£28) a head without wine. Rome city break guide Read Lee Marshall's complete guide to the Italian capital. Overview Rome's best hotels Attractions Restaurants Nightlife Shopping Itineraries The Eternal City is his first love and he returns there as often as possible.