The apse mosaic
Christ and the Virgin enthroned together in twelfth-century gold โ a masterpiece three hundred years before the Renaissance, free to enter.
Lalupa โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Sjaak Kempe from Groningen, The Netherlands โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Daderot โ CC0 ยท Carlo Pelagalli โ CC BY-SA 3.0
Evening for atmosphere and dinner (it fills after eight), or morning to photograph empty lanes. Ideally both on different days โ it feels like two different places.
Yes, and busy with residents and visitors until late. Usual care against pickpockets in the crush around the square; the side lanes are generally quiet and lit.
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The beating heart of Trastevere: a square with a fountain at its centre and steps where people sit, facing a church said to be the first in Rome dedicated to the Virgin โ founded in the fourth century, rebuilt in the twelfth, its faรงade carrying a golden mosaic that glows when the evening sun strikes it. Go inside: a forest of twenty-two Roman columns salvaged from older buildings (no two alike), a gilded wooden ceiling, and above the altar a twelfth-century mosaic showing Christ and the Virgin enthroned together โ among the loveliest mosaics in all Italy. Entry is always free. And outside the church begins the quarter people actually come for: lanes paved in volcanic stone, apricot-coloured walls trailing plants, family trattorias and small bars that fill after eight. Trastevere is the Rome its own residents live in โ come in the evening and walk without a map.
Christ and the Virgin enthroned together in twelfth-century gold โ a masterpiece three hundred years before the Renaissance, free to enter.
Twenty-two columns salvaged from older pagan buildings, no two alike โ Rome's history literally recycled.
Leave the square and wander at random: trailing plants, old workshops, wooden doors โ Rome's best evening walk.
Steps lead up from the quarter to the Janiculum and its view over all Rome โ a twenty-minute walk worth timing for sunset.
Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome