Totti's spot-kick on the hour mark earned the Giallorossi a narrow triumph at the Stadio Olimpico.

Totti had put the Eternal City giants ahead early on before Matteo Brighi's strike made it 2-0 in the 13th minute.

Having dominated the opening stages, the Giallorossi sat on their lead and ended up paying for it soon after.

Gianni Munari reduced the deficit on the half-hour mark before substitute Dimitrios Papadopoulos levelled the scores in the 55th minute.

However, Totti's penalty, which was awarded after Julio Baptista was brought down by Edinho, snatched all three points for the Romans.

Palermo heaped more misery on troubled Bologna and their new coach, Giuseppe Papadopulo, with an emphatic 4-1 victory at the Stadio Renzo Barbera.

Papadopulo, who replaced Sinisa Mihajlovic after the 4-1 home defeat by Siena in the last round of matches, had been hoping his arrival would spark his relegation-threatened side to life.

But Palermo were gifted the lead early on through Manuel Belleri's own goal and never looked back.

Simon Kjaer and Davide Succi stretched the hosts' advantage before Bologna found themselves playing with 10 man following the dismissal of Sergio Volpi.

Marco di Vaio then managed to get the visitors on the scoresheet, but it was nothing more than a consolation as Edison Cavani rounded off the win for Palermo in stoppage time.

Two goals by Sergio Pellissier guided Chievo to a 2-0 win over Siena, and Catania beat Sampdoria by the same score thanks to goals from Giuseppe Mascara and Jorge Andres Martinez.

Gaetano D'Agostino scored twice as Udinese beat Fiorentina 3-1. The playmaker scored either side of Dario Dainelli's effort for Fiorentina, after Kwadwo Asamoah had given Udinese an early lead.

Cagliari maintained their push for a European place with a 2-0 defeat of Napoli courtesy of goals from Capucio Jeda and Andrea Lazzari.

Reggina defeated Atalanta for their first victory in 2009 to revive their hopes of avoiding relegation.

Amaranto striker Fabio Ceravolo scored the only goal of the game after 40 minutes to seal a win that takes them to within four points of safety with six games remaining.

Yesterday Inter Milan were held to a 1-1 draw at 10-man Juventus, who equalised in the last minute through Zdenek Grygera, and Lazio beat Genoa 1-0.

In today's late game, Filippo Inzaghi scored a hat-trick as AC Milan trounced Torino 5-1 at the San Siro.

The striker scored in the 12th, 37th and 60th minutes to put Milan in control and Kaka added a fourth from the penalty spot midway through the second half. Massimo Ambrosini wrapped up the win, which moves Milan up to second in the Serie A table, in injury time.

Torino remain in danger of relegation in 17th place, a point above the bottom three.