Trastevere, across the Tiber: two great churches and a Bernini statue, Raphael at Villa Farnesina, Bramante's Tempietto, the Gianicolo terrace and botanic garden, the Sunday flea market, and where to eat and drink, from a Bib Gourmand trattoria to supplì.
Trastevere is the old quarter on the west bank of the Tiber, its name from the Latin trans Tiberim, 'across the Tiber'. It's a tangle of cobbled lanes and ochre houses around Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, climbing up to the Gianicolo (Janiculum) hill, with some of Rome's oldest churches and, after dark, one of its busiest areas to eat and drink.
Do it in order: the churches and art first (most with no ticket), the paid stops at Villa Farnesina (€12) and the botanic garden (€5), the view from the Gianicolo, then dinner in the lanes. Two of the city's best restaurants are in Trastevere. For a budget, what a trip to Rome costs adds up meals, hotels and tickets.
Getting here: there's no Metro (subway) station in Trastevere. Walk over Ponte Sisto from Campo de' Fiori, or take the No. 8 tram from Largo di Torre Argentina across the river. Churches here are working parish churches, so cover shoulders and knees, and visits pause during Mass. For the rest of the city, see things to do in Rome, and for a plan that ends here for dinner, our two-day Rome itinerary.
Churches and art. Start at the heart of Trastevere, Santa Maria in Trastevere, much of which dates from the 12th century, and its glory is the gold mosaics: the façade, and in the apse a cycle from about 1140, which shows Pope Innocent II holding a model of the church, above Pietro Cavallini's scenes of the life of the Virgin from 1291.
Cost: no ticket. Time: 30 minutes. Hours: it's a busy parish church, and Turismo Roma publishes no fixed visiting hours; avoid Mass times, and phone 06 5814802 if you're planning around it. The piazza outside, with its fountain, is the neighbourhood's living room day and night. The catch: shoulders and knees should be covered.
Look up at the apse: mosaics from about 1140 and, below them, Pietro Cavallini's scenes of the life of the Virgin (1291).
Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, in the quieter eastern half of the neighbourhood, is a Benedictine convent church with three treasures: Stefano Maderno's marble statue of the saint, Arnolfo di Cambio's canopy over the altar, and Pietro Cavallini's fresco of the Last Judgement. Cavallini was probably Giotto's teacher, the monastery notes, and the fresco, painted on the church's inner front wall, can no longer be seen from the church itself, only on a visit through the monastery. Under the church you can visit the excavations of a Roman house.
Hours: the church and excavations Monday to Saturday 10am to 12:30pm and 4:30 to 6:30pm; Sundays and holidays 11:30am to 12:30pm and 4:30 to 6pm. The fresco: weekdays 10am to 12:30pm only, Sundays 11:30am to 12:30pm. Cost: no admission charge is listed for the church, and the monastery doesn't publish prices for the excavations or the fresco. The catch: come in the morning if you want the Cavallini. The monastery celebrates the saint's feast on Monday 23 November 2026, with a Mass at 6:30pm.
The Cavallini fresco can't be seen from the church; it's visited in the morning slot only.
San Francesco a Ripa, at the southern end of Trastevere, was the first Franciscan church in Rome and is now a sanctuary. In the Albertoni chapel lies Bernini's Ecstasy of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni (1675), a reclining marble figure that Turismo Roma calls the sculptor's last work.
Cost: no ticket; it's a working church. Time: 20 minutes. It's an easy stop on the way to the Porta Portese market on a Sunday, about 10 minutes' walk from Santa Maria in Trastevere. The catch: it doesn't publish opening hours online, and like any parish church it can be closed between morning and evening services.
Home to Bernini's Ecstasy of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni. Opening hours aren't published online.
Villa Farnesina, on Via della Lungara at Trastevere's northern edge, is a Renaissance villa on the river with frescoes by Raphael: the Galatea in the loggia that bears her name, and the Loggia of Cupid and Psyche, set among Italian-style gardens. It's the one ticketed sight in Trastevere that's worth paying for.
Tickets: €12 for adults. Under the tariffs valid from 13 November 2026 to 14 February 2027, it's €10 for over-65s and teachers, €7 for students aged 10 to 18, and free for children up to 10 with their parents (until 12 November, the reduced ticket is €10 for students and over-65s). Buy on the villa's own booking site. Hours: Monday to Saturday 9am to 2pm (last entry 1:15pm); closed Sunday, except the second Sunday of each month (9am to 5pm). Time: an hour. The catch: the 2pm closing catches people out, so make it a morning visit. It's about 7 minutes' walk from Santa Maria in Trastevere.
It closes at 2pm most days, so go in the morning. No video filming inside or out.
The Gianicolo. Behind Villa Farnesina, the land rises to the Gianicolo, the hill that gives Trastevere its views. At its foot, the Orto Botanico, Sapienza University's botanic garden, spreads up the slope, a quiet hour away from the lanes.
Tickets: €5, or €4 reduced for ages 6 to 18 and over-65s (reduced tickets at the ticket office only); free under 6. Hours: every day, 9:30am to 6:30pm, last entry 5:30pm. Time: an hour or more. The catch: there's a back gate up on the Passeggiata del Gianicolo, but you can only come in that way with a ticket bought online.
Run by Sapienza University. The main entrance is on Largo Cristina di Svezia; the back gate on the Passeggiata del Gianicolo only admits visitors with an online ticket. No dogs.
Halfway up the hill, in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Spain beside San Pietro in Montorio, is Bramante's Tempietto, a small round temple from the early 1500s on the spot long held to be where St Peter was crucified. Renaissance writers ranked it alongside the Pantheon, and it's free.
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm (last entry 5:30pm); closed Monday. Cost: free. Time: 20 minutes. The catch: it's a steep walk up from Trastevere, so combine it with the fountain and the Gianicolo terrace above.
In the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Spain, beside the church of San Pietro in Montorio. Partway up the hill, so it's a natural stop on the way to the Gianicolo.
A few minutes higher, the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola, known to Romans as il Fontanone ('the big fountain'), is a monumental fountain that Pope Paul V had built after he restored the ancient Trajan aqueduct in 1608. The terrace in front looks straight over the domes and bell towers of the centre.
Cost: free from the street, any time. The small garden behind it can only be visited by booking on 060608: accompanied groups, or individuals on set dates in the city's calendar (€4, €3 reduced). Time: 15 minutes. The catch: it's on a busy road, so watch the traffic when you cross for photos.
The terrace in front has one of the best free views over Rome's domes.
At the top, the Gianicolo terrace on Piazzale Giuseppe Garibaldi, by the equestrian statue of Garibaldi, has one of the widest free views over Rome. Every day at exactly noon, a cannon fires a blank shot from below the terrace, a tradition Pope Pius IX began in 1846 so the city's bells would ring at the same time, fired from here since 1904.
Cost: free; the promenade is always accessible. Time: 30 minutes, longer at sunset. Getting up: about 15 minutes' steep walk from Santa Maria in Trastevere via Via Garibaldi and the stairs. The catch: it's a climb.
Arrive a few minutes before noon for the cannon, or come for sunset. It's a steep 15-minute climb from Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Porta Portese, at the southern gate of Trastevere, is Rome's biggest and best-known street market, and on Sunday it's a ritual for Romans as much as a stop for visitors.
When: Sundays only. Cost: free to browse. Time: an hour or two. The catch: it's crowded, so keep your bag in front and your phone out of your back pocket, and go early for the best stalls.
Go early, and keep an eye on your bag and phone in the crowds.
Where to eat. Trastevere is packed with restaurants, and the menus with photos on the main piazzas are the ones to walk past. The best restaurants in Rome guide already picks two here, Trattoria Da Enzo al 29 (no bookings, closed Sunday) and Glass Hostaria (one Michelin star); these are the other places to know. L'Osteria della Trippa on Via Goffredo Mameli, a Michelin Bib Gourmand for 2026, is built around Rome's quinto quarto, the offal and cheap cuts of the city's old slaughterhouse cooking. For cheaper food across the city, see cheap eats in Rome, and for a guided tasting walk, food tours and cooking classes.
Order: the fried tripe (€12) to start, then a Roman pasta (carbonara or amatriciana €18, cacio e pepe €19) or the trippa alla romana, tripe in tomato with pecorino (€20). At dinner Monday to Thursday, the whole table can take the tripe tasting menu (€37 a head). Spend: about €33 a head for a starter, a pasta and the €3 bread basket, before wine. Book: on OpenTable. Open: dinner Monday to Saturday, lunch Friday and Saturday only; closed Sunday. The catch: if offal isn't your thing, the menu is short.
A Michelin Bib Gourmand for 2026. Book on OpenTable.
Supplì Roma, on Via di San Francesco a Ripa, has been serving fast Roman food since 1979: supplì, Rome's fried rice croquettes, here with oxtail ragù, amatriciana, cacio e pepe or carbonara, plus pizza and pasta dishes that change every day.
Order: two supplì, say the oxtail and the cacio e pepe, and a slice of pizza. Spend: it doesn't publish prices online. Closed: Sunday. The catch: it's quick street food, not a sit-down meal.
A takeaway counter since 1979: supplì, pizza by the slice and pasta. Closed Sunday.
Trapizzino, on Piazza Trilussa at the end of Ponte Sisto, sells the trapizzino: a triangle of pizza dough split open and filled with a Roman stew: the fixed fillings are doppia panna (cream cheese), parmigiana, meatballs in sauce, chicken cacciatora and tongue in salsa verde. It doubles as a wine bar with a list of Lazio wines, and it's open late every night.
Order: a trapizzino (all €5) and a supplì (all €2). There are five fixed fillings and three that change with the season. Spend: €7 to €12. Open: from noon every day, until midnight on Monday, 1am Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday, and 2am Friday and Saturday. The catch: it's busy on weekend nights.
Five fixed fillings plus three seasonal ones, a Lazio wine list, and open late every night.
Where to drink. Bar San Calisto, on the small square just west of Santa Maria in Trastevere, is an old-school bar that Marcello Forti took over in 1969, and it's still the neighbourhood's meeting point from breakfast until after midnight: coffee and a cornetto in the morning, a beer at an outdoor table at night. For the rest of the city, see the best bars in Rome.
Open: every day, 6:30am to 1:30am. Spend: it doesn't publish prices online. The catch: it's simple and crowded on summer nights; that's the point.
In Trastevere since 1969, a minute from Santa Maria in Trastevere. Breakfast to after midnight.
Freni e Frizioni ('brakes and clutches') on Via del Politeama, a minute from Piazza Trilussa, is a cocktail bar and the obvious place for an aperitivo or a late drink near the bridge.
Open: every day, 6:30pm to 2am. Spend: it doesn't publish prices online. The catch: weekend nights get loud and packed, so come early for a table.
A cocktail bar a minute from Piazza Trilussa and Ponte Sisto, open every night until 2am.
This route is about 2.5 km and takes 35 to 40 minutes on foot, so allow three to four hours with a sunset, an aperitivo and dinner. It starts at the top of the hill, so the walk itself is mostly downhill. The timing depends on the season: Rome's sunset is around 4:40pm in December and around 8:45pm in late June, so start about an hour before it. Villa Farnesina and the Tempietto will be closed by evening; see them on a morning visit.
Start at the Gianicolo terrace on Piazzale Giuseppe Garibaldi (taxi or bus up, or walk the stairs from Via Garibaldi if you're fit) and watch the city change colour. Walk down the Passeggiata del Gianicolo and Via Garibaldi, about 7 minutes, to the Fontanone for the second view, then 3 more minutes to Bramante's Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio, and take the steps down into Trastevere, about 6 minutes, to Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Have an aperitivo at Bar San Calisto, a minute away on Piazza di San Calisto, then walk about 6 minutes to dinner at L'Osteria della Trippa on Via Goffredo Mameli (book ahead). Or, if you'd rather queue for a table, go east to Da Enzo al 29 instead.
After dinner, walk 10 minutes north through the lanes to Piazza Trilussa, at the foot of Ponte Sisto, where the steps of the fountain fill up at night. A late cocktail at Freni e Frizioni is a minute away, or a €5 trapizzino if you're still hungry. To get back to the centre, cross Ponte Sisto, the footbridge over the Tiber, and you're at Campo de' Fiori in about 6 minutes.
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Best time: the morning for Villa Farnesina (it shuts at 2pm) and the Cavallini fresco at Santa Cecilia (mornings only); noon for the Gianicolo cannon; late afternoon for the view; evening for dinner. Sunday morning adds the Porta Portese market, but Villa Farnesina is shut except on the second Sunday of the month.
Monday: the Tempietto is closed, but Villa Farnesina and the Orto Botanico are open.
Eating out: a coperto (cover charge) isn't allowed in Rome; restaurants may charge for bread or service only if it's printed on the menu before you order, so check it (L'Osteria della Trippa's bread basket is €3), and don't feel you have to tip. Book dinner for Friday and Saturday.
Staying here: Trastevere is lively and atmospheric, but the main squares are noisy late at night, especially around Piazza Trilussa. Light sleepers should ask for a room on a side street or at the back. Our Trastevere hotels guide has ten here, and where to stay in Rome compares the quieter areas.
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