Trastevere

Trastevere is a great neighborhood. It's not pristine or manucured, but it's really interesting. It's less crowded with tourists than other areas of the city because, I think, there are not really any major sights to see. In English, the name of the river that runs through Rome to the Mediterranean is the Tiber. In Italian, the river is the Tevere; so, Trastevere literally means across the Tiber river. Just as Paris is divided into the Left and Right Banks, Rome is a split city too. The main piazza is in front of the beautiful church of Santa Maria in Trasvevere which contains some really lovely mosaics. The easiest way to get here from the Centro Storico is to cross the Tiber at the Ponte Sisto. Really this neighborhood is a collection of tiny piazze joined by alleys. You never know what you might find which makes it fun to wander through. The picture here is a really old apartment building that I saw on one of my last wanderings there. As far as food goes, there are lots of interesting looking little places here. There's a little piazza on the Trastevere side of the Ponte Sisto which has a great restaurant called Trattoria Ponte Sisto that I've eaten at 3 times. There's some great pizza option all through the area. The Food, Wine, Rome, there's a place called Ivo A Trastevere for pizza that sounds really delicious. The place where Anthony Bourdain had Carbonara is in Trastevere at a restaurant called Paris. The cacio e pepe he had was at Roma Sparita, also here.