A ROMAN PRIMER\Italy's 'Eternal City' from A to Z.

Byline: Gary A. Warner Orange County Register

Before the Roman Emperor Trajan scooted off this mortal coil in A.D. 117, the hairy despot gave Romans, and the rest of the world, something to remember him by: the Latin alphabet we use today.

Sure, the alphabet goes back to Egyptian times, but without Trajan's changes it would still be Greek to us. Here's a guide to the old guy's town, a trip through the Eternal City from A to Z.

A is for Autunno: Italian for autumn, the best time of year to visit the Eternal City. The summer heat has dissipated and harvest festivals fill market stalls with roasted chestnuts, chewy persimmons and blood-red Sicilian oranges. All of Rome turns out for the Festa Vino Novello in late November, celebrating the first wines of the season.

B is for Bocca della Verita: The sublime face of the "mouth of truth" in a wall at the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church near the Tiber River is actually an old sewer or cistern cover. The stone oval is carved with the face of an old man, with a hole for a mouth. Legend says anyone who places a hand in the mouth and tells a lie will have it bitten off. In the 19th century, priests would sit in a small room behind the mouth. If they heard what they believed to be an untruth, they would whack the hand with a switch and give the liar a fright.

C is for Capitoline: The city center since ancient times, the Capitoline Hill was designed primarily by Michelangelo. The government center overlooking the Roman Forum and Appian Way was "caput mundi (head of the world)," hence the words "capital" and "capitol.

D is for Duce: Italian for "leader" and the self-chosen moniker of shaven-headed despot Benito Mussolini. "Il Duce" ruled Italy from 1922 until 1945, when his corpse was hung by its heels from a Milan garage. Fascism has enjoyed a nostalgic boom in Italy, where Il Duce's granddaughter sits in Parliament.

E is for Eustachio: Coffee served thick and strong. Espresso. Cappuccino. Latte. It's an art form in Rome and the best can be found at the Sant' Eustachio Caffe at 82 Piazza Sant' Eustachio, just behind the Pantheon.

F is for Foro Romano: Nowhere is the ghost of imperial grandeur more palpable than amid the storm-scarred victory arches and tumbled marble columns of the Roman Forum. Just below the Capitoline Hill, visitors walk the Via Sacra (Sacred Road) past the ruins of Julius Caesar's house and the Temple of the Vestal Virgins. Nearby is the Rosta, where Marc Anthony called for retribution against Julius Caesar's murderers.

G is for Gnocchi: The tiny potato dumplings, served with a tomato, butter or Gorgonzola cheese sauce, are one of the great budget meals of Rome.

H is for Hepburn: Audrey, not Kate. In the 1953 movie "Roman Holiday," she plays a princess on the lam from a formal European tour. She meets reporter Gregory Peck, who, after a whirlwind romantic tour of the city, returns her tearfully to her stuffy life. She can't marry Peck, but they'll always have Rome.

I is for Isola Tiberina: The Tiber is the central artery of Rome, the watery highway of commerce and travel since Etruscan tribes wandered its banks a thousand years before Christ was born. The tiny Tiber Island (Isola Tiberina) is a wonderful place to watch a sunset or cuddle with a lover.

J is for Jupiter: The angry, bearded King of the Gods, who threw thunderbolts at mortals from his throne in the heavens. His temple, with a gold and ivory statue of the god, was given the most important site in the city: atop the crest of the Capitoline Hill. Only its outline remains today.

K is for Keats: In the glory days of the 18th and 19th century "grand tour" of Europe, many a foppish boy and adventurous girl would delay their return to Britain by renting apartments near the Spanish Steps. Romantic notions of Rome were fueled by the English poet John Keats, who lived at the foot of the Spanish Steps and died in Rome at age 26 in 1821.

L is for La Dolce Vita: During the 1950s, bored playboys and stunning starlets would spend the torpor-inducing summer nights lolling at bars on Via Veneto or splashing in the Trevi Fountain. The overflowing sidewalk cafes echoed with "La Dolce Vita" - "the sweet life" of partying, eating, drinking and more partying. But today, the Via Veneto is little more than a tourist haunt with overpriced eateries and expensive hotels catering to the bus-tour crowd.

M is for Markets: Romans love to shop "al fresco" and the best outdoor markets are the fruit stalls at Campo de' Fiori and the flower market at Vatican City. Bargain hunters head for the famed flea market at Porta Portese.

N is for Navona: The Piazza Navona remains one of the few must-not-miss sights in Rome. Sip espresso at an outdoor cafe, stroll with a gelato cone or just wander the stones. Once a Roman circus used for horse races, the oblong plaza is dominated by the 17th-century Sant' Agnese in Agone church, a baroque masterpiece by Borromini.

O is for Ossuary: There was a time a century or so ago when Santa Maria dell' Orazione e della Morte on the Via Giulia was among the most popular tourist stops in Rome. Its ghoulish vault of bones of dead monks - known as an ossuary - was meant by the Roman Catholic Church to be an object lesson on mortality for curious visitors. On All Saints Day, the bone rooms are illuminated by dozens of candles.

P is for Pantheon: It's been a Roman temple, a Catholic church and the burial site of kings and artists. Built by Trajan in the second century, the temple survived Christian demolition when the popes made it a church. Air and light enter through a 30-foot hole in the roof called the oculus. It's unforgettable to visit the Pantheon during a thunderstorm, when lightning flashes illuminate the vast interior and water cascades through the oculus onto a small circle on the temple floor, while all around it remains dry. The artist Raphael and several kings of Italy are buried in vaults along the rim of the floor.

Q is for Quirinal Hill: One of the prettiest and most active of Rome's original seven hills, the Quirinal district is best known to locals as the location of the presidential palace. But most Americans know it for its movie-star tourist attraction, the Trevi Fountain, an oversized conglomeration of statues depicting Neptune, serpents, seahorses and tritons.

R is for Raphael: Along with Michelangelo, Raffaelo Sanzio was perhaps Rome's greatest artist. After making his mark in Florence, he moved to Rome in 1508 to work for a succession of popes, creating great treasures for the Vatican palaces, including "The Transfiguration" and the glorious Raphael Rooms.

S is for Shopping: Valentino, Versace, Armani, Ferragamo, Gucci, Bulgari. The Italian names drip with fame, fashion - and finance, to buy their wares. The best shopping is along the Via Condotti, which runs from the foot of the Spanish Steps.

T is for Trastevere: Trastevere is the Rome many people dream of - narrow alleys, laundry hanging from the upper windows, days among the tiny shops selling crafts, evenings spent lolling around tiny cafes. The center of life is the Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, known for its intricate 12th-century mosaics.

U is for Uno al Portico d'Ottavia: For a peek inside the world of the old Jewish Ghetto, have a lunch of soup and fried baby artichokes at this small cafe at 21 via del Portico d'Ottavia. Jews came to Rome as slaves of Pompey the Great, but many earned their freedom and became artisans and doctors. Persecutions began in the 16th century, when Jews were ordered to live within a walled compound near the Tiber River, known as a "ghetto. The Italians didn't match the Nazis' anti-Jewish zeal, but in 1943 Mussolini buckled to Hitler's pressure and ordered 1,015 Roman Jews deported to Nazi death camps.

V is for Vatican: On the spot where St. Peter was martyred, generations of faithful have built a world of temporal splendor. The pope's kingdom has lush gardens, museums filled with priceless masters, and baroque palaces without peer. It is dominated by the marble expanses of St. Peter's cathedral, the mother church of all the world's Roman Catholics.

Join the crowd to rub the well-worn foot of the statue of St. Peter, gaze at Michelangelo's "Pieta," and climb the 330 steps to the top of the cupola. Next door, jostle your way through the endless lines to see the Raphael Rooms and crane your neck at Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel.

If the pope is in the Vatican, he has a public audience on Wednesday. You can take part by applying in Rome to the American Paulist Fathers (call 46-27-48). If you miss the Wednesday visit, you can see the Pope every Sunday when he appears at his apartment window on St. Peter's Square to say the Angelus prayer and give the world his blessing for the week.

W is for Women: Rome is at the heart of the Mediterranean, where attitudes toward women differ from those in the United States or Northern Europe. At its best, the attitude can mean an Old World courtesy lacking elsewhere. The downside is that some Italian men see a woman traveling alone as a "romantic" challenge. Unwanted advances are best turned away by a polite but firm "no" or by ignoring the man altogether. Some women suggest wearing a wedding ring - whether you are married or not.

X is for X-rated: Her real name is Illona Staller, but to a tired electorate in the mid-1980s, she was better known as Ciccolina, the nickname she used in a string of hard-core pornographic movies. When Ciccolina announced her candidacy for the Italian Parliament on a "free love" ticket and often campaigned topless, the electorate sent her to Parliament, much to the apoplexy of her more staid colleagues.

Y is for Y.A.E.: Stands for "Young And Enthusiastic," the nickname given the the motor-scooter-riding teen-agers of Rome by travel writer Richard Saul Wurman. Tourists have to deal with them everywhere: YAEs crowd the cafes and bars on weekend nights, roar through crosswalks on their Vespas, dance and sing until dawn at nightclubs.'

Z is for Zoo: When the noise, crowds and heat will beat you down, retreat to the Borghese Garden, where on a hill between the Spanish Steps and the Via Veneto is a lush green garden and a small zoo. The tiny collection of animals is just an excuse to get away from it all to cool down, clear your head and prepare for another foray into the Eternal City.

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(1 -- 2 -- color) A detail of Rome's Trevi Fountain, left. Below, right, two priests take a stroll with the domes of St. Peter's Basilica rising in the distance. (3 -- 4 -- color) The ruins of the Roman Forum, surrounded by the modern city, are overgrown with weeds, above. At right, details of Michelangelo's ceiling artwork in the Sistine Chapel shine after a recent cleaning. (5) Bernini's great bronze canopy rises above the high altar in St. Peter's Basilica.