How to plan the perfect one-day itinerary in Trastevere, Rome

30.08.2024 - 16:40 / lonelyplanet.com / Maria Di-Santa

Aug 30, 2024 • 7 min read

If it were a person, the Roman quarter of Trastevere would be the dockworker who writes poems in the steam of a foggy window on his break, or the bartender who serves you coffee while waiting for their long-lost love to reappear in the doorway. It’s that part of Rome where you could be tricked into thinking you were somewhere else, where the grand monuments of the ancient city give way to tiny, intimate alleys and cobbled streets that always seem to find the sun. 

While it might now be a haven for hipster revelry and a well-trodden path on the tourist track, Trastevere is still a neighborhood where life hums to the daily rhythm of an age-old tune. Take a day to listen and you’ll find yourself tracing your own verse on those cobblestone streets. You may be swept away by the current of crisscrossing laundry lines and neighbors who cackle to each other over endless coffees that turn into cocktails. It may just be the day that you remember more than any other from your time in Rome. 

6am. There are only a few hours in the day when the Bar San Calisto isn’t open and they’ll likely coincide with the nap you’ll allow yourself to recharge. While it isn’t the oldest bar in Trastevere, San Calisto is an institution: from the first espresso they pour at 6am until last call at 2am, a steady stream of the faithful arrives for cheap drinks on one of the neighborhoods liveliest squares. It’s better known as a nighttime spot, but it's the early mornings where the magic happens. Garbagemen and poets cross paths, one just starting the day and the other ending it, and they mingle over coffee in the eponymous square. The streets surrounding the San Calisto seem to extend out like the first stretch of the day and the distinct silence you can only hear in the lull between crowds is palpable. 

7am. Being the first is nice, but being “probably the first” is decidedly more memorable. The Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere has stood since 340 and is known as the first house of Catholic worship in Rome and the first to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Probably. After you caffeinate at San Calisto, take a short wander toward the piazza where you’ll find older women congregating around the fountain that will become a focal point as the day marches on. If you wait for the doors to open you’ll be rewarded with a near-private viewing of 12th-century mosaics and medieval wooden ceilings. But even if you just want to sit outside and watch the sun illuminate the golden tiles on the building facade, you won’t be disappointed. In fact, you might lose track of time altogether, something that tends to happen in Trastevere. 

9am. Breakfast in Italy is largely a sweet affair, but breakfast at Le Levain is in