For my last night in Rome, we opted for a walk around Trastevere, a very pleasant shopping and dining district to the South of the Vatican. The neighborhood is not a typical tourist destination (although we ran into plenty of fellow tourists), not much in the way of sightseeing but just a nice area nice to walk around, shop, and get a bite to eat. Above, a typical scene in Trastevere.

The certer of the Trastevere neighborhood is the church Santa Maria in Trastevere and the piazza that fronts it. This is the piazza, taken from in front of the church...

...and the church itself.

Top of church and campanile.

The church itself is quite beautiful. A lot of the churches in Italy feel more like tourist attractions than churches, but Santa Maria in Trastevere felt as though it was used more as a place of worship. Mosaics in the church's dome were ancient and quite beautiful.

In most Italian churches, lighting a candle is a typical way of offering a prayer. At Santa Maria in Trastever, in addition to lighting candles, you could write a prayer on a card and leave it in the church.

Between our visit to the church and dinner, we took a lengthy walk, stopping in lots of shops along the way. This is the shopkeeper in oune of our favorite shops, which sold stationery, note cards, and pretty paper.