How to plan the perfect day in Trastevere, Rome – Lonely Planet

If the Roman quarter of Trastevere were a person, it would be the barista who serves you coffee while awaiting the reappearance of their long-lost love or the dockworker who composes sonnets in the steam of a foggy window. Even though it’s graduated into a popular tourist spot, Trastevere is still in essence a neighborhood where life hums to the daily rhythm of an age-old tune. 

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In Trastevere, you may find yourself swept away by the current of crisscrossing laundry lines and neighbors who cackle to each other over endless coffees that turn into cocktails. It’s the part of Rome where the grand monuments of the ancient city give way to tiny, intimate alleys and cobbled streets that the sun always seems to find. Your experience here might just be the one that you remember more than any other from your time in Rome.

Sunrise: Start (and end) your day at Bar San Calisto

6:30am. There are only a few hours in the day when Bar San Calisto isn’t open, and they’ll likely coincide with the nap you’ll want in order to recharge. While it isn’t the oldest bar in Trastevere, San Calisto is an institution. From the first espresso they pour at 6:30am until last call at 1:30 am, the beloved neighborhood spot brings a steady stream of faithful patrons who sip cheap drinks on one of the Trastevere’s liveliest squares. While the bar is better known as a nighttime spot, the early mornings are when the magic happens. Sanitation workers 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.

Early morning: View 12th-century mosaics at a lovely basilica

7am. Being the first is nice, but being “probably the first” is 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 brief stroll 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…