The district without a plan

None of these alleys run straight, and that's because nobody here ever drew a map. When Augustus split the city into fourteen districts, this patch got the number fourteen and the name Transtiberim, last on the list and the only one on this side of the river.

Most people who lived here came from somewhere else. Boatmen from Ostia, traders from Syria, an early Jewish community, warehouse hands and tanners whose stench kept them outside the city proper. The street names around you still carry that mix: Via del Moro, Vicolo del Cinque, Via della Pelliccia.

The ground floors tell you the rest. Plenty of these houses have a wide, low arch down below that was once a workshop or a stable and is now sealed off with a shop window or a front door. Above them the storeys sit crookedly on one another, because every generation added a layer.

We follow Via del Moro until it opens onto the broad little square, then keep to the right toward the church with the narrow facade on Via della Scala.