Roman Holiday: A Princess in Rome

Crown Princess Ann is at the end of a tiring goodwill tour. After a day of ceremonies her doctor gives her an injection and tells her to do exactly what she wishes, and she slips out of the embassy into the Roman night for a taste of ordinary life. Her ornate bedroom was filmed at Palazzo Brancaccio, the last noble palace built in Rome; today it is an events venue, hired out for weddings and society parties.

American reporter Joe Bradley finds the drugged princess asleep in the street, assumes she is drunk, and carries her to his flat to sleep it off. The address is Via Margutta 51 — a narrow lane near Piazza del Popolo that was once a quarter of craftsmen, workshops and stables and now holds art galleries and fashionable restaurants; Fellini was among its later residents. Joe misses Ann's press conference, then spots her photograph in the paper and realises what is sleeping on his couch.

Location precision: The film names Via Margutta 51; the pin marks the street rather than the building's courtyard.

Visitor guidance: Via Margutta is a public lane between Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna; number 51 is a private doorway.

Ann goes out alone into Rome and Joe follows, watching her explore a market, buy shoes and have her long hair cut short — the film's famous transformation. The barber's shop stood on Via della Stamperia, a step from the Trevi Fountain, which Ann passes on her way. The Trevi is the largest Baroque fountain in the world, designed by Nicola Salvi and completed in 1762, and one of the film's most durable images. Tradition holds that a coin thrown over the shoulder ensures a return to Rome.

Visitor guidance: The fountain fills Piazza di Trevi; it is free to see and busiest in the evening.

Joe contrives to bump into Ann on the Spanish Steps and talks her into spending the day with him. They meet on the monumental stairway of 135 steps that links Piazza di Spagna to the church of Trinità dei Monti, with the little Fontana della Barcaccia at its foot; Ann, playing truant, tries an ice cream in the sun. The steps are among the film's best-loved locations and are always crowded. Rome now fines people for sitting down on them, so admire the staircase from the piazza.

Visitor guidance: Piazza di Spagna is at the foot of the 135 steps; sitting on the steps is prohibited and fined.

Joe takes Ann to a café on the Piazza della Rotonda, in the shadow of the Pantheon's columns, and here his photographer friend Irving joins them, shooting pictures with a camera hidden in a cigarette lighter. The café was the Caffè Rocca; the square itself is unchanged, with the Fontana del Pantheon and its obelisk in the centre and the Pantheon behind. It is where the princess smokes her first cigarette and where the day's deception quietly takes shape.

Location precision: The film names the Caffè Rocca but not where its tables stood; the pin marks the Piazza della Rotonda in front of the Pantheon.

Visitor guidance: The square around the Pantheon is free to walk through at any hour.

Joe, Ann and Irving tour the Colosseum, the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built and one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions. Later Ann takes the handlebars of a Vespa and careers through the traffic with Joe on the back; the joyride ends at a police station, and Joe has to talk them both out of trouble. The amphitheatre still stands beside the Roman Forum, its arches open to anyone with a ticket.

Visitor guidance: Book a timed ticket before you travel; the amphitheatre is open daily.

At the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Joe tells Ann the medieval legend of the Bocca della Verità: a liar who puts a hand in the marble mouth will have it bitten off. Ann hesitates, then tries it. Joe goes next — and jerks his arm away inside his sleeve, pretending the mask has taken his hand, to Ann's real, unscripted scream. The ancient marble face, probably the sea god Oceanus, still sits in the church portico.

Visitor guidance: The mask is in the portico of Santa Maria in Cosmedin; queues form through the morning.

After the Mouth of Truth the three drive out to a dance on a boat moored on the Tiber, and the royal agents close in. A brawl spills across the riverbank; Ann smashes a guitar over one of the pursuers' heads, Joe is knocked into the water, and Ann dives in after him. They come up shivering on the bank and kiss. The dance was filmed beside the Tiber at Castel Sant'Angelo, the great round mausoleum Hadrian built for himself and now a museum.

Location precision: The dance was filmed on the Tiber by Ponte Sant'Angelo; the pin marks Castel Sant'Angelo.

Visitor guidance: Castel Sant'Angelo is a national museum on the right bank; Ponte Sant'Angelo crosses the river beside it.

Ann returns to her duty and faces the assembled press at the embassy. Joe and Irving are there; instead of selling his photographs, Irving gives them to her as a memento of Rome. Asked which city she most enjoyed, Ann abandons her diplomatic answer: "Rome. By all means, Rome." The closing scene was shot in the gallery of the Palazzo Colonna, home of the Colonna family for over twenty generations. Joe stays behind after everyone else leaves, then walks out.

Visitor guidance: Palazzo Colonna's gallery, reached from Via della Pilotta, opens on limited days; check before travelling.