San Lorenzo

Rome is Italy's second most expensive city for rent after Milan, with the historic centre and adjacent districts clearly pricier than the rest. Public transport, by contrast, is among the cheapest of the large European cities. The gap between zones is very wide: for the same floor area you save by moving along the metro lines.

Gallery-access tenements and public-housing blocks from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ICP blocks, a few more recent buildings on via Tiburtina. Lifts rare, small flats often let room by room to students. Night-time San Lorenzo ZTL; difficult parking, Fascia Verde.

Shopping in small grocers and neighbourhood supermarkets, with the Nuovo Mercato Esquilino a quarter of an hour away. Policlinico Umberto I on the northern edge, the National Central Library at Castro Pretorio, the Villa Mercede library in its park. Nightlife on via dei Volsci, via degli Ausoni and piazza dell'Immacolata; green space at Villa Mercede and the Parco dei Caduti del 19 luglio 1943.

112 is the single emergency number; 113, 115 and 118 remain active. Low violent crime, frequent pickpocketing and tourist scams in big cities. Civil Protection weather and seismic alerts and IT-alert messages on mobile phones.

Rules depend on who is arriving: EU/EEA/Swiss citizens (no visa, registration with the Comune after three months), non-EU citizens for stays up to 90 days (Schengen rule, type C visa where required) and for long stays (national type D visa and a residence permit within eight working days of arrival).

No metro inside the district, but Termini (A, B, trains) is a quarter of an hour on foot and Tiburtina (B, high-speed trains, FL1 to Fiumicino) twenty minutes or a tram ride. Trams 3 and 19 on via dei Reti and via Tiburtina, buses on via Tiburtina. Works for the new Tiburtina tramway under way.

The city is split among three ASLs: Roma 2's districts match municipi IV–IX, Roma 3 covers municipi X, XI and XII plus Fiumicino, and the remaining municipi belong to Roma 1. Besides the big teaching hospitals, the ASLs run local hospitals; choose your GP via Salute Lazio or at your district desk; out-of-hours care on 116117.

Rome's economy is dominated by services: central public administration, international organisations and embassies, tourism and hospitality, film and television, health, universities and research. Industry is concentrated in aerospace and electronics in the metropolitan area. Coworking is widespread in the centre, Prati, Ostiense and EUR.

Rome has three large state universities (Sapienza, Tor Vergata, Roma Tre), the sports university (Foro Italico) and many private and pontifical institutions. Student support (grants, housing, canteens) is run by DiSCo Lazio. San Lorenzo is the student district par excellence, next to Sapienza's campus.

Mediterranean climate: long, hot, dry summers and mild winters with rain concentrated between October and December. Snow is rare. Air quality is a city issue: exceedances of the daily PM10 limit at some stations and an environmental limited-traffic zone (Fascia Verde) that excludes the oldest vehicles.

A country of strong local identities: dialects still spoken at home, cuisines and festivals that differ from region to region. Formality with 'Lei', rigid meal times, slow paper-based bureaucracy. Non-EU citizens with a long-stay permit sign an integration agreement with credits.