The Trastevere Climb

Ponte Sisto

A Renaissance pedestrian bridge with a flood-warning oculus, built for Pope Sixtus IV in 1479 on Roman foundations.

You're standing on Ponte Sisto, the pedestrian bridge that links the centro storico to Trastevere. The bridge you're on was built between 1473 and 1479 for Pope Sixtus IV, the first stone bridge raised in Rome since the Empire. Look down at the central arch and you'll see a round opening Romans call the occhialone, the big eye. It was cut to relieve water pressure during floods, and for centuries it was the city's early-warning system: if the Tiber rose to that hole, you got ready to move your belongings upstairs.

The bridge carries eight pipes of Acqua Paola water beneath your feet, still feeding the left bank after four centuries. From here you can see the dome of St. Peter's framed between the plane trees. Take a last look at the river, then cross to the Trastevere side.

Piazza Trilussa

Trastevere's front door, a stepped square centered on a 1613 fountain fed by the Acqua Paola aqueduct.

You've crossed into Trastevere. The square under your feet is Piazza Trilussa, a living room for the neighborhood. The fountain at the top of the steps is the Fontanone di Ponte Sisto, built in 1613 and moved here piece by piece in 1898 after the lungotevere embankments were built. It's fed by the same Acqua Paola aqueduct as the big fountain you'll see later on the Janiculum, and it marks the spot where the water jumps the river. On warm evenings this staircase fills with Romans nursing beers and listening to whoever shows up with a guitar. When you're ready, leave the square by the narrow street to the left of the fountain, Via della Lungaretta, and head toward the campanile you can see ahead.

Santa Maria in Trastevere

Rome's oldest Marian church, rebuilt in the 1140s, with a shimmering 12th-century apse mosaic of Christ and the Virgin enthroned together.

You're standing in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, facing the oldest church in Rome dedicated to the Virgin. A church has stood on this spot since at least the 340s, though the building you see was rebuilt in the 1140s under Pope Innocent II. Step inside and let your eyes adjust. The apse mosaic is the reason you came.

Christ and Mary sit side by side on a single throne, an image drawn from the Song of Songs: she is both the Virgin and the Church itself. Below them, twelve lambs process toward the Lamb of God. The gold ground is not a flat sheet: the tesserae are set at slightly different angles so the surface shimmers even in low light. Below the main mosaic, six panels by Pietro Cavallini from the 1290s show scenes from Mary's life.

In the Nativity panel, notice Joseph sitting off to one side looking exhausted. Medieval viewers would have recognized him wrestling with doubt. Outside again, look up at the façade mosaic of the Virgin nursing the Christ child, one of the earliest images of its kind, with ten wise and foolish maidens flanking her. When you're ready, exit the piazza on the northwest side and follow Via della Paglia to Via della Lungara.

Villa Farnesina is a three-minute walk.