Alberto Angela has made a career out of exploring his hometown. Here are his favourite spots to unearth Rome's millennia of secrets, from the Vatican Museums to Ostia Antica.

From the 1st-Century BCE ruins of the Imperial Forum to the Trevi Fountain’s Baroque splendour, Rome packs such an overwhelming myriad of postcard-worthy landmarks that digging through its historical layers can make any visitor feel like they've turned into an archaeologist.

Alberto Angela, a TV presenter, global ambassador for Italian heritage, art, history and culture, and a familiar face in Italian living rooms for nearly four decades knows a thing or two about his hometown's 2,000 years of history – and he's ready to help visitors discover it, especially as this year's Jubilee newly puts it into the limelight.

The SpeciaList

Alberto Angela is an Italian palaeontologist and TV presenter raised and based in Rome. A well-recognised public scholar, he has published books and conducted documentaries for Italian state broadcaster RAI on science, history and archaeology-related topics for the past 36 years.

"Rome has two faces," says Angela. "The Papal – that of the rich – and its working-class soul, the one that is closest to us… the most interesting," he says.

In a city where grand basilicas lie next to shady alleyways, Angela recommends exploring without cramming in too many sights – so that one can "immerse oneself in the world of the ancients".

Having followed in the footsteps of his famous father, Piero Angela – Italy's most well-known documentarist often called a "national treasure" – the younger Angela attributes his career and love of history to growing up in the Italian capital.

"You breathe history here," he says. "Anyone who comes to Rome can see the same afterglow Caesar would have seen. You aren't in a place that doesn't exist anymore. Rome was rebuilt on top of its ancient structures."

For Angela, this is what makes Rome so unique. "The city did not cancel its history, unlike many others," he says. "Living here, you understand the ancients."

Emerging from a small market settlement on the Tiber, the city of Rome was at an intersection between the Mediterranean and mainland Europe, making it a crossroads that swelled into the world’s first true metropolis. Angela believes that the city's immense global-reaching political and symbolic impact throughout history means everyone has a "piece" of Rome inside them – which is why it can have such a profound impact on those who visit it.

Here are Angela's favourite ways to experience ancient history in modern Rome.

Much of central Rome's labyrinthine urban grid is a direct heir of the former imperial capital, with public spaces like the Baroque Piazza Navona or Campo de’ Fiori piazza taking their shape from a bygone stadium and theatre, respectively.

Tip:

Trying to cram in all of Rome's main landmarks in a few days is an Olympian feat, so Angela recommends first-time visitors follow a three-day rule.

"See the major sights on the first and second days – Saint Peter's, the Pantheon, the Colosseum," he says. "And then on the third day, choose yourself, to see something cool [off the beaten path]. When you get home, you'll feel you'll have seen the things everyone talks about, but you'll also have seen something you yourself like."

But on the Palatine Hill, the mythical birthplace of Rome, you can actually walk on the same stones where emperors Augustus and Nero once dwelled.

"It's the place where the Caesars lived and died," Angela says.

As the legend goes, twin brothers Romulus and Remus received an omen from the gods and decided to lay the foundations of a new city on the Palatine Hill in 753 BCE. In the subsequent centuries, the Palatine developed into an exclusive neighbourhood of patrician villas and Imperial palaces – indeed, it’s where the word “palace” takes its root.

One of the legendary seven hills of the ancient city, offering an incomparable vantage point with a 360 panorama, Palatine Hill offers what Angela describes as "a beautiful walk", with arguably the best views of the Colosseum – the unmistakable "star of ancient Rome".

Visiting the Palatine is a full immersion into the life of the Roman empire, with a plethora of impressive ruins, including the mosaic........

© BBC