Piazza San Cosimato: The Living Market & Cloistered Silence

Why is it significant?

Pace across the broad open paving of Piazza San Cosimato, where fruit vendors call out in melodic Roman dialect and children kick soccer balls against the weathered ochre walls.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Pace across the broad open paving of Piazza San Cosimato, where fruit vendors call out in melodic Roman dialect and children kick soccer balls against the weathered ochre walls. This square is the unvarnished residential hearth of Trastevere, preserving the lively morning food market that has fed the working families of the quarter for over a hundred years.

Look toward the northern facade: behind the modest hospital entrance lies the ancient tenth-century monastery of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Step quietly through the reception archway and you will enter a serene, sunlit Romanesque cloister supported by delicate twin marble columns, completely insulated from the clamor of modern city traffic.

Saint Francis of Assisi stayed in this quiet monastic complex during his historic visits to the Roman pontiff in the thirteenth century; the stone pillow on which he rested his head is still preserved as a sacred relic within the adjacent sanctuary walls.

Continue eastward through the quiet alleys toward the scenic bank of the Tiber river.