The lanes that make Trastevere worth staying in are the lanes no vehicle can use. The cart meets you at Piazza Trilussa, on viale di Trastevere or on the embankment, a few minutes from any hotel in the quarter. Then the route goes uphill first, because you are standing at the bottom of the Gianicolo and the best view in Rome is eight minutes above your head.
Uphill first
Most tours reach the Gianicolo three-quarters of the way through, when everyone is tired. From here you start there. You see the city whole before you see any of its parts, and everything afterwards has somewhere to sit inside your head.
Minutes 0–10. Up via Garibaldi, the switchback road out of the quarter, past San Pietro in Montorio and the Fontanone to the Gianicolo terrace. Everybody gets out. Ten minutes at the balustrade with the whole of Rome below and someone naming what you are looking at.
Minutes 10–30. Down the far side and along the Lungotevere to Castel Sant'Angelo, or south past Isola Tiberina. Which one depends on the hour. Late afternoon we go north for the bridge; in the morning we go south, because the Aventine is better before the queues.
Minutes 30–55. The Aventine. Up the hill to the keyhole at the Priory of the Knights of Malta, where a hedge tunnel frames the dome of St Peter's exactly, then the Giardino degli Aranci two minutes on. Benches, full shade, a terrace over the river, and the smell of the orange trees before you reach them. Fifteen minutes, and one of the two or three best stops in Rome.
Minutes 55–80. Down to the Circus Maximus: two or three minutes, the Palatine ruins rising on one side, usually nobody in the way. Then the Bocca della Verità and the Theatre of Marcellus, slow-and-tell, past the Jewish Quarter.
Minutes 80–120. Up past the Capitoline to Piazza Venezia and into the centre for the Pantheon or the Trevi Fountain on foot, whichever you have not already done on your own.
Minutes 120–150. Back over the river. Timed right, you come into Trastevere at dusk with the lanes lighting up, which is the correct way to arrive home here.
How long things take from Trastevere
| From Trastevere to | By cart | On foot |
|---|---|---|
| Gianicolo terrace | 8 min | 25 min, steep climb |
| Aventine keyhole | 12 min | 30 min with a climb |
| Castel Sant'Angelo | 10 min | 25 min |
| Piazza Navona | 10 min | 18 min |
| Colosseum (from outside) | 18 min | 40 min |
Best hour to leave. Seven in the evening, or half past, and not later. From about eight the quarter fills and the streets around Piazza Trilussa become slow to move through. Leaving at seven gets you out cleanly, onto the Gianicolo for the last of the light, and back once it is properly dark. Morning is the other strong option, particularly if the Aventine keyhole is on your list: before nine you usually walk straight up to it, and by noon the queue can be twenty people deep.
The surface underfoot
Trastevere is small. You can cross it in fifteen minutes.
What tires people is not the size but the ground: rough sampietrini throughout, uneven, domed, and slippery after rain. It is one of the areas where visitors with knee or ankle trouble most often cut their day short, and it usually happens on the way home rather than on the way out.
If that is your group, this is the quarter where a cart changes the day rather than merely speeding it up: see the routes and times.
Where we meet you
Into some of the lanes, yes. Into the narrowest, no. Vicolo del Cinque, vicolo del Bologna and their neighbours are too tight, and from six in the evening they are full of tables.
The standard meeting points are Piazza Trilussa at the foot of Ponte Sisto, a section of viale di Trastevere, or the Lungotevere embankment. From almost any hotel in the quarter that is two to five minutes on foot, and the driver walks in to meet you by name.
Prices
| Guests | Price per cart | Cart |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | €390 | 4 seats, driver takes one |
| 4–5 | €490 | 6 seats, driver takes one |
| 6–7 | €590 | 8 seats, driver takes one |
| 8+ | Quote on request | Two carts |
Per cart, all in, about two and a half hours. Extra stop €19.50, child seat free. No tickets, no interiors.
For hotels and apartments in the quarter
We work with a small number of luxury hotels in central Rome, and we keep the circle deliberately small: the same driver standard every time, one number that answers, and a guest who comes back to your desk happy. Because the streets here are what they are, we agree one meeting point per property and then never change it.
If you would like your property to be part of it, write to partnership@aurarometours.it, or see the partner page.
The surface here is the reason: what sampietrini do to knees and hips. And why a vehicle can use the lanes at all: Rome's ZTL explained.
Gianicolo, the Aventine keyhole, the Circus Maximus, and back into Trastevere at dusk. €390 for one to three guests, €490 for four or five, €590 for six or seven.