SIGHTS
"I love the Colosseum, and so do my kids. All of these cats used to live there. The Colosseum is a very dramatic sight. You can get books that have a plastic sheet that shows the city the way it used to look before it was in ruins. Then you pick up the sheet and see the ruins. You get a rush from being inside these old buildings, which have such a strong presence, such resonance. And then you go nearby and there will be somebody dressed in a gladiator costume, an actor, getting a bottle of water in his Spartacus outfit."

MUST-SEES
"I saw the Sistine Chapel before and after it was renovated, and I have to say it was so bright when they finished painting it. That's a must, but it's very difficult because of the wait - especially during the tourist season. There are a number of other chapels that have amazing paintings - lots of very ornate angel happenings all over the place - that are lesser known. The Galleria Borghese museum is in the middle of the 17th-century Villa Borghese park. Then, of course, you have the Vatican Museum, which is sort of the Disneyland of Rome. There are lines around the block."

LIVING LIKE A ROMAN
"The trick with Rome is just to get brave and start wandering around. You come around a corner and you're in some fabulous piazza. And every view you get when you look out your back window - and I've lived in a number of apartments there - is just enchanted. Between the light and the food and everyone seeming to be in love, it's just a magical place. It's a good antidote to the lives we have in the busy cities, because you really can't get anything done, even if you wanted to. Every-thing closes down for hours during lunch. I've always joked that if it said 'One Hour Photo,' you'd have to figure out which was the one hour where you could actually get anything processed."