City of hidden charms

To avoid the touristy crowds and the hustle and bustle that today's Rome is, visit three rarely visited museums for their beauty, oddity and beguiling atmosphere, writes Francine Prose.

One of the joys of Rome is its ability to make you feel that it has spent centuries accumulating layers of beauty and history, patiently waiting just for you to arrive. Even when the city is filled with tourists shuffling behind their guides' upheld umbrellas, there are sites where you can enjoy Rome's cultural riches in relative comfort. For those who tire of jostling for enough space to fling a coin into the Trevi Fountain, or who, lining up outside the Colosseum, find themselves wondering if the lines at Disney World might have been shorter, Rome offers plenty of opportunities to escape the crowds.

I find refuge in Rome's museums as fascinating and rewarding, if not necessarily as spectacular, as any of the must-see spots on the traveler's itinerary. Of course, there are many other sublime places in this ancient city where you can find solitude and isolation. In the thick shade of the Protestant Cemetery, you can commune in privacy with the spirits of Keats, Shelley and the other bright stars of art and literature buried along its serene, well-tended paths.