Across the river from the centre of the town, on the right bank of the Tiber, Trastevere is a smallish district, sheltered under the heights of the Janiculum Hill. It was the artisan area of the city in classical times, nearby placed for the trade that came upriver from Ostia and was unloaded nearby. Located outside the city walls, Trastevere ( the name means literally “across the Tiber) was for centuries heavily populated by immigrants, and this uniqueness and separation lent the neighborhood a strong identify  that lasted well into this century. The separate identity remains, and its one of the city nicest  neighborhoods, no question. But Trastevere’s working-class origins are long gone, and it’s nowadays mainly a hub for eating out and nightlife, with a host of Bars, Trattorias, Restaurants that in summer are thronged with tourists, lured by the charm of its narrow streets and closeted squares. It’s home of some of the most compelling sights , the Villa Farnesina and the church of Santa Cecilia.

Some others important sights  in Trastevere are:  San Francesco a Ripa ( it is best known for the fact that Saint Francis himself once stayed here) church and ancient hospital San Giovanni dei Genovesi  ( set up to care for sailors from Genova in the 15^th century) Piazza belli, church of San Crisogono, is a large, typically Roman basilica, with a nave lined with ancient columns and one of the citys finest Cosmati mosaic floors. The church of Santa Maria in Trastevere is held to be the first Christian place of worship in Rome, built on a site where a fountain of oil is said to have sprung on the day of Christ’s birth. The greater part of the structure now dates from 1140, after a rebuilding by Innocent II, a pope from Trastevere. These days many people come here for the church’s mosaics, which are among the city’s most impressive: those on the cornice were completed a century or so after the rebuilding and show the Madonna surrounded by ten female figures with lamps  - once – thought to represent. The Wise and Foolish Virgins. Inside, there’s a nineteenth-century copy of Cosmatesque pavement  of spirals and circles, and more twelfth-century mosaics in the apse, Byzantine-inspired works which depict a solemn yet sensitive parade of saints thronged around Christ  and Mary, while underneath a series of panels shows scenes  from the life of the Virgin by the painter Pietro Cavallini. Piazza Trilussa is a busy open space that focuses on the steps up to its grand 1613 fountain. Palazzo Corsini built originally for Cardinal Riario in the fifteenth century it is nowdays home of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte di Palazzo Corsini. The Orto Botanico, grounds of Palazzo Corsini are now the site of the orto Botanico one of the most important in Italy. Villa Farnesina, built during the early sixteenth century by Baldassarre Peruzzi for the Renaissance banker Agostino Chigi , it is a unique building, known for its Renaissance frescoes and contributed  to by some of the masters of the Renaissance. Chigi situated his villa here to be close to the papal court and away from his business cronies.