There are so many secret palaces, parks and cloisters in Rome. During the weekend we venture out hoping to catch a glimpse of a museum reopened after a decades-long restoration or of a roman villa at the exclusive use of the military or some obscure association, union or society.

This morning the weather forecast announced bad weather for the coming week, so we were even more eager than usual to get out and profit of the fabulous ottobrata romana.

Since next weekend we will be celebrating the fall of the Berlin wall, we walked along the bits and pieces of Roman walls still standing, the Mura Aureliane. Starting at Porta Tiburtina in San Lorenzo (yes, yes, behind the railway station) we walked until Porta Maggiore, where not less than 8 water aqueducts converged.

Here, following the remains of the wall, opposite Villa Wolkonsky you can still see the section of the wall and 3 ancient Roman water pipes made of laeteritium and lead. The diameter of the pipes and the descending slope tell us that the Villa which was served could definitely pay plenty of taxes (diameter) and had probably many fountains (slope).

In fact we are right at the edge of Villa Wolkonsky .  The pipes are visible from the traffic light stop on Via Statilia and Via Santa Croce di Gerusalemme (top left corner in the picture). From the corner you can glimpse some bassorilievi, opus reticulatum and the columns of a circular temple.

From the street a high wall protects the Villa which hosts now the British Embassy, part of war reparations. You can see some pictures of the interior of the inaccessible and mysterious Villa Wolkonsky in the August 2009 Daily Mail article attached below (to be honest, I would never eat the CO2-rich marmalade made with the oranges which grow on Rome’s trees, even if from Villa Wolkonsky!).

Sandwiched in between Villa Wolkonsky and San Giovanni al Laterano is the Teatro Sala 1 where Friday night we saw Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring our friend Cristina in the role of the cruel and glamorous Madame de Merteuil. This is another bit of secret Rome…the theatre entrance is hidden by the bus stop and is very small, but the atmosphere is magic: vaulted brick walls and a truly conspiratorial mood.

Today we popped in at San Giovanni in Laterano because we knew that the cloister would be so beautiful with the sun, given its jet black-red-gold Cosmateschi mosaic. We then continued our quest for inaccessible Rome crossing the Celio hill, and wondered at all the beauty that is lost: the gardens are mainly closed and host buildings of the military hospital. Once again another Roman treasure (like portions of Palazzo Barberini) for the exclusive use of the military and forbidden to the citizens. We don’t like this sort of exclusivity.

A nice surprise: after many unfruitful expeditions, this time Santo Stefano Rotondo was open to the public. The church has been recently restored, beautiful rust metal lights hang from the rounded ceiling and illuminate the extremely gore frescoes showing all sorts of tortures, San Lorenzo in the middle of the flames and the like.

Well, time for getting out of the church, for a glass of wine and more sun before the official kick off of winter!

Villa Wolkonsky – Daily Mail

David Miliband was at the centre of a new row over politicians’ perks last night after he admitted enjoying three nights in the glorious residence of the British Ambassador to Rome as part of a family holiday to Italy.

The Foreign Secretary, his wife and two children spent the holiday last week at Rome’s Villa Wolkonsky, the 19th Century mansion which is home to our envoy Edward Chaplin. The villa is paid for out of the Foreign Office budget.

The Milibands were given exclusive use of the swimming pool at the residence, set in 11 acres of sumptuous grounds in one of Rome’s most exclusive districts.

Last night, the Foreign Office admitted that Mr Miliband paid just £100 a night to the British Embassy for his family’s stay.

The residence is estimated to be worth £18million and locals said that the cost of equivalent accommodation in Rome would run into thousands of pounds.

A family of four spending £100 a night on accommodation would normally have to settle for one room in a one-star hotel by Rome’s infamous central station, an area favoured by thieves and drug addicts.

During the Westminster MPs’ expenses scandal, it was revealed that Mr Miliband had claimed for gardening expenses and nearly £30,000 in repairs, decorations and furnishings for his family home in South Shields, on Tyneside.

His time at the residence in Rome coincided with a hectic week for British foreign policy, including the critical elections in Afghanistan and the controversy over the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi.

Sources claimed that annual leave for the mansion’s 13 members of staff, including a butler, chef, waiters and maids, was put on hold so they could cater for the Foreign Secretary’s family break, including shopping expeditions.

There were also suggestions that the staff had been instructed not to discuss his stay with anyone.

Mr Miliband’s use of Foreign and Commonwealth Office resources for his family’s private holiday will inevitably raise questions about his judgment.

Sumptuous: The villa was built in the 1890s by the descendants of the Russian Princess Zenaide Wolkonsky

Experienced diplomats said they could not recall any of his predecessors taking a holiday at an overseas embassy.

Last night, Mark Wallace, spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It is utterly unacceptable for the Foreign Secretary to use Britain’s diplomatic resources for his family holidays.

‘The taxpayers who funded this  are struggling to afford holidays for themselves in this country, let alone in Italy.

‘They should not have to subsidise the Milibands’ family break.’

Tory MP Douglas Carswell added: ‘David Miliband should pay for his own holidays like everybody else. He should not be living it up off the taxpayer and the Foreign Office.

‘Holidaymakers in my Clacton-on-Sea constituency do not want to see politicians having holidays at public expense.’

Mr Miliband, 46, his wife Louise, 50, and two sons aged five and nearly two, went on their break earlier this week.

At breakfast, Mr Miliband and his American-born wife will have been offered marmalade which has been made in the villa’s kitchens from orange trees in the grounds.

On Wednesday, Mr Miliband had lunch with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at his summer residence, Casteltelporziano.

The Italian capital is of particular significance to Mr Miliband and his wife, a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra, who spent a few years in the Nineties performing for the Rome Opera Orchestra.

They married three years after meeting on a flight from London to Rome.

Ideal location: The villa, with its 11 acres of grounds, is located in one of the most upmarket areas of Rome

The revelation of the stay at the Rome villa comes a week after Mr Miliband triggered outrage by saying that terrorism was ‘justifiable’ in some circumstances.

The remark was condemned by the Tories, who said it risked giving succour to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Mr Miliband was paying tribute to anti-apartheid activist Joe Slovo, a friend of Mr Miliband’s father, the Marxist academic Ralph Miliband.

Asked whether such terrorism was ever justified, Mr Miliband told interviewer Matthew Parris: ‘Yes, there are circumstances in which it is justifiable, and yes, there are circumstances in which it is effective.’

Villa Wolkonsky’s grounds, complete with tennis court and a 30ft by 15ft swimming pool, provided a relaxing setting for the family and even boast a Roman ruin – 36 bays of an aqueduct built by the Emperor Claudius in 52AD.

Roman tombs have been excavated in the grounds of the villa, which is situated in the south-east of Rome, near San Giovanni church.

It has been the official residence of the British Ambassador in Italy since the end of the Second World War, when it formed part of the assets taken by the Allies as reparations.

The British Government formally purchased the property in 1951 and filled it with valuable works collected within the Government Art Collection, including a portrait of James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, by Alexis Simon Belle.

Controversial: Miliband has already come under scrutiny for spending £30,000 on his family home in Tyneside

The embassy’s website says a dining room ‘has a more formal atmosphere with the lower part of the walls covered with marble’.

It also boasts a pair of impressive oil paintings, the Allegorical Tombs Of The Marquess of Wharton, and Joseph Addison, by Donato Creti.

Another dining room has 20 chandeliers. The interior layout of the Villa Wolkonsky has changed little since the Thirties.

The main feature of the interconnecting reception rooms on the villa’s ground floor is a series of four Mortlake tapestries based on cartoons by Raphael. The tapestries are on loan from the Duke of Buccleuch.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: ‘The Foreign Secretary was on holiday in Italy last week.

‘The Italian President had invited him to lunch, which, of course, he accepted. He stayed three nights at the residence.

‘To avoid any possible cost to the taxpayer, the Foreign Secretary gave a cheque in advance to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for £300, which easily covers any marginal cost from his stay.

‘It is wrong to suggest this was at taxpayers’ expense.

‘The decision to close the pool in the garden residence was taken by the Ambassador, normal procedure when guests are visiting, especially VIPs. Staff are able to use the additional pool in the embassy grounds.’

She also denied that staff leave had been cancelled.