The walk to the Stadio Olimpico is punctuated by red and yellow stickers carrying various messages.

Among them, there is one that reads ‘Er Core Nun se Sbaja’, which in Roman dialect translates to ‘the heart is never wrong’.

Claudio Ranieri listened to his when he returned to the club he supported as a boy for the third time in November.

The Giallorossi were 12th in Serie A, in the midst of their worst start to a season since 1979 and had sacked Daniele De Rossi and his replacement Ivan Juric.

By the time Ranieri lost his first two games in charge, Roma were just two points clear of the relegation zone, a nightmare scenario for a club that invested €100million (£82m) in the summer.

Six months later, a visibly emotional Ranieri bade farewell to the Olimpico for what is surely the last time with his side a point behind fourth-placed Juventus with one game left to play.

‘A great leader and a true Romanista,’ read a banner across the Curva Sud ahead of kick-off against AC Milan on Sunday night.

‘Mister Ranieri, you’re one of us. The head can’t rule the heart,’ proclaimed another.

Above both banners, red and yellow placards spelled out Ranieri’s name and ASR, the club’s acronym, as he walked out to the pitch.

A man who has never sought the limelight, the 73-year-old looked almost uncomfortable with the reception, trying to fight back the tears.

There was, after all, still a game of football to play – his 500th in Serie A – and to win in a bid to keep the quest for a Champions League spot alive.

And Roma did just that. Gianluca Mancini headed the Giallorossi ahead three minutes into the game. Santiago Gimenez then received a red card, but numerical inferiority did not stop Milan from levelling the scores, Joao Felix claiming only his second goal in 20 appearances since joining in January to restore parity.

If the Olimpico wondered whether Milan could spoil Ranieri’s party, the answer was an emphatic no. This version of the Rossoneri is the most obliging of guests, a side in disarray and drowning in mediocrity.

Leandro Paredes put Roma ahead with a sweetly-struck free-kick 13 minutes into the second half before Bryan Cristante sealed all three points with a thunderous strike from outside the box three minutes from time.

Before Ranieri’s arrival, Roma had lost five of their opening 12 Serie A fixtures. Three more defeats in Ranieri’s first four games followed, before a 19-game unbeaten run which was ended by Atalanta last week.

“These lads stood with me from the first day, they know my character,” he told the 68,000 inside the Olimpico as he received one last tribute after the final whistle. 

“I told them that they had to help me, because I couldn’t do it on my own. I put my faith in them, because when I arrived, their mood really was rock bottom and they had barely any self-esteem left. We slowly managed to climb that mountain.

A Roman and a Romanista, Ranieri understands the delicate dynamics of this club better than most.

The actual football has long felt like an accessory to the football scene in the red and yellow half of the Eternal City, where drama is ever-present.

Roma have reached the semi-final of a European competition in each of the past four seasons, a run which included two finals and delivered the Europa Conference League in 2022.

Depending on one’s point of view that is either remarkable consistency or a case of what in American sports parlance is known as “missing the window”. 

In layman’s terms, Roma probably could have and should have won more than they have. This, after all, is a club that has finished runner-up in the Scudetto race a staggering 14 times.

Only Juventus and the two Milan giants have come second more often, but they also have 75 titles between the three of them.

Are Roma perennially punching above their weight or simply nearly men? The truth is probably somewhere in between.

But then, nuance is seldom on the menu when it comes to Roma and Rome, a club and a city where success isn’t measured along the traditional standards.

Trophies count, yes. Silverware is welcome, of course. But getting one over your local rivals is just as important, perhaps even more so.

Parochialism in Rome is also a coping mechanism. 

Roma and Lazio have won the Scudetto five times between them, which still leaves them four adrift of Genoa, whose last title came a century ago.

Next year it will be a quarter of a century since the Eternal City celebrated a Scudetto, the Roma of Francesco Totti and Fabio Capello succeeding Lazio to the throne in 2001.

That wait is unlikely to end any time soon, with European qualification currently the realistic ceiling to Roma and Lazio’s ambitions.

It is a ceiling Roma may well go on to smash soon and Ranieri will have a role to play if, as expected, he remains as technical advisor to the Friedkin Group.

For now, he has restored his boyhood club near the top of calcio’s pyramid and made Romanismo a source of pride once more.

“Sixty years ago I was one of you in there,” he told the Curva Sud on Sunday night. “The players followed me from day one, I told them I needed them and we needed you.

“We got your support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, sincerely.”