Rome Letter/ Paddy Agnew: This is the time of year when those of us of a non-conformist bent love to walk about night-time Rome.
Conventional wisdom argues that such is the stifling, oppressive and humid high-summer heat that only mad dogs and tourists are to be found in the Eternal City at this time of year.
Modern Romans, by and large, abandon the capital in August, heading for the cooler realms of their "second houses" by the beach, in the mountains, or in the countryside. That mass exodus, however, creates a magical Rome, one that is half-empty and one in which, especially at night, you can begin to feel, touch and breathe the dimensions of ancient Rome.
Relieved of the asphyxiating smother of chaotic modern traffic, the ancient city reclaims its pride of place. Not only is there breathing space for the most famous architectural triumphs of ancient Rome (the Forum, the Colosseum etc) but also the night-time prowler will come across semi-deserted little corners and tucked-away piazzas that get lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday business.
Thus it was that the other night, we came across a gentleman sitting out in the middle of a little square, watching his portable TV (positioned on a white plastic garden table) and eating his dinner in total and splendid isolation.
The square is less than 100 yards from the Forum in one direction and about 150 yards from the Tiber in the other.
On that same night-time prowl we visited Palazzo del Quirinale, these days home to the Italian President but, of course, a building which for nearly 300 years until 1870 was home to the Pope. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it seems, the Vatican had such a bad reputation because of its low-lying, malaria-prone position that Pope Gregory XIII opted for lofty heights of the Quirinal Hill, the highest of Rome's seven hills.
To say we visited Palazzo del Quirinale is not quite correct since we visited the former stables, nowadays renovated as a splendid exhibition centre housing an intriguing photographic show entitled, "Rome, Past and Present". The omens were good when the lady at the entrance insisted that all mobile phones be switched off. This really was going to be a step back into a 19th century past.
If ever you were curious to know what the Rome visited by Keats and Goethe looked like, not to mention the Rome visited nearly a century later by Henry James, then this is your chance. We have all learnt from guidebooks and histories that, unlike other great European capitals such as London and Paris, modern Rome was until quite recently a very provincial and rural little place. Here is the proof.
These photos, taken from the Alinari and Broghi collections, contain some extraordinary images. Shots taken in the 1850s show cows grazing in the Forum, washing hanging out at the Tarpeian Rock, corn growing in the Circus Maximus and goats foraging around Trajan's Forum.
Fifty years later, however, the embryonic tourist industry was up and running and the cows had been banished from the Forum, which was now visited by elegant Victorian ladies and gentlemen, the former with their parasols and the latter with the de rigueur straw hat.
Guidebooks, too, talk about how Piazza Navona, once Domitian's stadium for athletic displays and called the Circus Agonalis, used to be flooded for high-summer entertainment during the 19th century. Here again is the visible proof, with one picture depicting boats paddling up and down the elegant square.
Modern pilgrims who make their way up the broad avenue, Via Della Conciliazione, which leads into St Peter's Square at the Vatican may not be aware that until the 1930s, no such street existed. It was "Il Duce", Benito Mussolini himself, who ordered that a whole residential block be knocked down to create an impressive avenue leading up to the basilica.
Likewise, "Il Duce" ordered a similar face-lift down at the Forum, creating the broad expanse of Via Dei Fori Imperiali straight through the Forum and again wiping out a collection of higgedly-piggedly little houses that had tick-like clambered on to the Forum's back. "Rome, Past and Present" offers intriguing images of both the Vatican and the Forum, before their Mussolini face-lift. Yet, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this exhibition, and of the modern city Rome itself, is highlighted by the final pictures of the show. These provide a contrast between Rome of 150 years ago and Rome today, placing pictures of prominent Rome streetscapes taken in the mid-19th century alongside those taken from exactly the same position in 2003.
The result is the magic of Rome, the not surprising discovery that in almost every case, the streetscape has remained untouched, be it ancient Roman, renaissance, baroque or Victorian. City fathers, town planners and property speculators all over Europe, look on Rome and be ashamed.