A neighbourhood on the west bank of the Tiber, south of the Vatican, reached from the historic centre across a handful of bridges.

The name means across the Tiber, and until the modern era that is exactly what it was — a working-class district slightly apart from the rest of the city.

What survives is a dense grid of narrow cobbled streets, medieval and baroque buildings in ochre and terracotta, small squares, ivy-covered facades, and a concentration of restaurants, bars and cafés that has few equals in Europe.

There is no ticket and nothing to book. The neighbourhood is the attraction.

At its centre is Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, with the church of the same name and a fountain that people sit on all evening.

This is an evening neighbourhood and everything about it is better after dark.

By day it is pleasant and quiet, with the lanes half-empty and the restaurants closed between lunch and dinner. Worth a morning walk for photographs, but it is not the main event.

From early evening it fills. The lamps come on, the tables spill into the streets, the squares gather people, and the whole place becomes the thing it is famous for.

Dinner in Rome runs late by northern European standards — kitchens fill from around eight and stay busy well after ten.

After dinner the bars and the piazzas carry on. It is the liveliest part of Rome at night by a distance, and it is why so many visitors describe it as their favourite evening of the trip.

The main reason to come, and the density is remarkable — hundreds of restaurants, trattorias, pizzerias and wine bars in a small area.

The Roman classics are what to order: cacio e pepe, carbonara, amatriciana, saltimbocca, artichokes done Roman or Jewish style, and pizza al taglio for lunch.

Quality varies enormously. The places on the main squares with photographic menus and a man outside inviting you in are the ones to walk past. The better restaurants are on the side lanes, are smaller, and often have no English menu at all.

Book for the well-regarded places, particularly at weekends. Many of the best are small and fill early.

A useful rule: if it is full of people speaking Italian at nine in the evening, it is probably good.

Beyond the restaurants there is a serious bar scene — wine bars, cocktail bars, craft beer, and a great many people simply sitting on the steps of a fountain with a drink.

Piazza Trilussa, by the river, is where the younger crowd gathers on the steps in the warm months.

Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere is the main square and is busy every night.

It gets loud. If you are staying here, that is the trade — an unbeatable location and a neighbourhood that does not go quiet until very late. Ask about the street side of the building when you book a room.

The noise is also part of what people come for. It depends entirely on which of those two visitors you are.

The single best thing to do here is to walk without a destination.

The lanes are narrow, irregular and largely medieval in plan, and they open unexpectedly into small squares. Ivy, washing lines, scooters, cats, workshops and doorways full of plants are the texture.

The area is small enough that you cannot get badly lost, and dense enough that every street has something on it.

Go one street back from wherever the crowd is. The difference between the main routes and the parallel lanes is immediate.

The area south of Viale Trastevere is quieter and less visited than the northern half, and is where the neighbourhood feels most like itself.

The centrepiece of the main square and one of the oldest churches in Rome, on a site claimed as the first place in the city where Christian worship was openly held.

What to see: the twelfth-century gold-ground mosaics in the apse and across the facade, which glow when the light catches them, and the reused ancient columns in the nave, taken from Roman buildings.

It is free to enter and takes fifteen minutes.

The usual church rules apply — shoulders and knees covered, quiet inside.

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, a short walk away, is less visited and holds a famous sculpture of the saint plus, for a small charge, a fresco of the Last Judgement in the enclosed choir.

Beyond the lanes and the eating, several things are worth building into a walk.

The Botanical Garden, tucked behind the neighbourhood on the slope, is a ticketed and unexpectedly peaceful escape.

Villa Farnesina holds frescoes by Raphael and is one of the quieter significant sights in Rome.

The climb up the Janiculum Hill above Trastevere gives one of the best panoramas of the city, and it is free.

The Sunday morning market at Porta Portese is one of the largest flea markets in Europe.

And the Isola Tiberina, the island in the river, connects Trastevere to the Jewish Ghetto by two of the oldest bridges in the city.

Walking is the best approach. From Campo de’ Fiori or the Jewish Ghetto it is ten to fifteen minutes across the Ponte Sisto or via the Tiber island.

That walk across the bridge, particularly in the evening, is part of the experience.

Trams run along Viale Trastevere from the centre and are the easiest public transport option. Buses serve the area too.

There is no metro station in Trastevere itself.

Driving is pointless — the lanes are narrow, largely restricted and impossible to park in.

From the Vatican it is a twenty-minute walk south along the river, which makes a good pairing for a day that ends with dinner here.

Worth addressing, because it is sold as the local quarter and is no longer quite that.

The honest position: Trastevere has been thoroughly discovered. The main squares and the streets around them are heavily touristed, prices reflect it, and a proportion of the restaurants exist to serve visitors rather than residents.

But it is still a real neighbourhood. People live here, the markets are working markets, and the lanes away from the main routes on a weekday evening are unmistakably Roman.

The practical response is geographic rather than philosophical: walk further, eat later, and choose the streets nobody is standing in.

For a genuinely less-visited neighbourhood with the same character, Testaccio across the river is where locals point visitors who ask this question.

September and October are the busiest months here, with May and June close behind — the outdoor dining seasons.

January and February are the quietest.

The neighbourhood depends more on weather than most Rome sights, because so much of it happens at outdoor tables and in squares. A warm evening is the whole point.

Winter is quieter and more local, and the restaurants move indoors, which has its own appeal — small rooms, candlelight, and no queue.

May, June, September and October are the sweet spots: warm enough to sit outside, and long enough evenings to make the most of it.

Trastevere is generally safe and is busy with people until very late, which is its own security.

The usual precautions apply: pickpocketing in crowded squares and on the trams, and care with bags on outdoor tables.

The cobbles are uneven and slick when wet — sensible shoes matter, and heels are a genuine mistake here.

Card payment is widely accepted, though some smaller places prefer cash.

Public toilets are scarce; cafés and bars expect a purchase.

Restaurants often add a cover charge per person, which is normal in Italy and is not a scam. Service is not usually added; rounding up is customary rather than a percentage tip.

Difficult, and honestly so. The cobbles here are the large, irregular sampietrini setts, and they are hard work for wheelchairs, awkward for strollers and unforgiving for anyone unsteady.

The lanes are narrow with no pavements in many places, shared with scooters and delivery vans.

The area is largely flat, which helps, but the surface is the problem rather than the gradient.

Viale Trastevere, the main road through the neighbourhood, has proper pavements and is the accessible spine — the restaurants on and near it are more reachable than those deep in the lanes.

Trams on Viale Trastevere are the accessible transport option.

There is little criticism of Trastevere beyond crowding and prices on the main squares.

The ordinary version: cross the bridge at eight, eat at the first place on the main piazza with a menu in five languages, pay too much for average carbonara, and leave thinking it was pleasant enough.

The good version: come over in the late afternoon, walk the lanes while they are still quiet, see the mosaics in Santa Maria before the church closes, climb the Janiculum for the sunset over the whole city, come back down as the lamps come on, and eat somewhere small on a side street that you booked two days earlier.

It costs nothing to walk into and it is the best evening in Rome. Just walk one street further than everyone else.