ROME -- On the stone steps of the 500-year-old Santa Maria del Popolo church, our tour group huddled around our guide in a tight circle.

''Come closer,'' the guide said. We leaned in even more.

''Be really quiet inside,'' he advised. He was holding a tattered, hardcover copy of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, and as he spoke, he slipped it into a messenger bag slung around his shoulder. ``The priest here doesn't like us. Oh, and don't flash your Path of Illumination maps.''

I felt a tingle of the forbidden as I put the yellowed map in my pocket and quietly stepped through the doors. The church was packed with throngs of tourists and a few dozen people in the pews, waiting for Mass to begin.

A glance to my left startled me: Behind a black iron gate covering a small nook was a shroud-draped skeleton. Its head was cocked to one side and its hands crossed over the chest.

Demon? Angel?

I'm not a Dan Brown fanatic. I casually started the blockbuster book on a recent flight to Rome from my home in Miami. It was fun and a perfect diversion for a boring plane ride. When I finished, I was intrigued. I wanted to see what the sites in the novel looked like. A few Internet clicks yielded something called ''The Official Angels & Demons Rome Tour'': a four-hour romp through Rome, past sites featured in the book.

For those of you who haven't read it, here's a five-second recap: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (the main character in The Da Vinci Code, played in the movie by Tom Hanks) teams up with foxy sidekick Vittoria Vetra (played by Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer), and unravels the mystery behind who is mutilating and killing Catholic cardinals. Centuries-old conspiracy theories abound. Oh, and Langdon saves the Vatican from destruction.

A NOVEL SETTING

As a reader, I wasn't so much taken with the plot or the papal controversy surrounding the book. Much has been written about the Vatican's reaction to both Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. News reports have debunked Brown's account of the Illuminati. For me, it was the setting -- Rome -- that was exciting. The locations in the novel were like main characters, not just backdrops to a tantalizing treasure hunt through the Eternal City.

The tour, I hoped, would recreate that treasure hunt and maybe provide some real-life history along the way. It didn't disappoint.

We were instructed to meet on the steps of Santa Maria del Popolo at 9:30 a.m. The nearby piazza was already bustling because the Italian state police were marking their 156th anniversary -- I knew this because my husband briefly wandered away to drool over the official Police Lamborghini that transports human organs to hospitals at high speed. (Only in Italy.)

POETIC LICENSE

About 24 of us were on the tour, mostly middle-aged Americans and a few English-speaking Italians. Our guide greeted us and gave a brief summary of the book. Most of us had read it, but it was fun to hear it read aloud in the crowded square. He passed out a copy of ''The Path of Illumination,'' a map of Rome photocopied from the novel, and on the back was the printed riddle that had inspired Langdon, our fictional muse:

From Santi's earthly tomb with demon's hole,

'Cross Rome the mystic elements unfold.

The path of light is laid, the sacred test,

Let the angels guide you on your lofty quest.

In the book, Santa Maria del Popolo is the location of the first cardinal's murder.

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