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Testaccio apartment, Rome: Testaccio Loft - Tips and AreaGreat 1BR / 1 BA with Internet and Terrace in the heart of the trendy Testaccio areaMore info: Description Facilities Where We Are FAQ Photo Gallery Guest Reviews Tips and Area
Tips and Area Where to eat: Da Felice: Via Mastro Giorgio, 29. Tel. 0039(0)6/5746800. A Testaccio institution, as traditional as they come. The owner, Mr Felice shops every day at the Testaccio market and serves traditional Roman cuisine, including rigatoni cacio e pepe, with pecorino cheese and pepper, pasta all’amatriciana, with red sauce and bacon, pasta lenticchie e fagioli - lentils and thick borlotti bean soup with pasta – trippa, trippa, carciofi alla romana (stewed artichokes with mint). Very crowed, be prepared to wait for a table or to be kicked off if the owner doesn’t like you! Its genuine atmosphere attracts lot of celebrities. Mr Roberto Benigni even composed a poem, nowadays written on the wall of the restaurant. Da Perilli: Via Marmorata, 39. Tel. 0039(0)6/5742415. A great typical Roman restaurant. This great restaurant serving great Roman food, is known for its pasta (tonnarelli cacio e pepe) and from its stinco di maiale. Da Agustarello: Via G. Branca, 98. Tel. 0039(0)6/5746585. Artists’ hangout on the heart of Testaccio. Prices are unbelievably low and the cooking is good, plain Roman fare. It’s tiny and you can’t make reservations, so come as close to opening time as possible. The menu changes daily but fettuccine al sugo (pasta with simple tomato sauce) is always there. Try the pasta with chickpeas or borlotti beans if you can. House wine doesn’t cost much more than water. Enoteca Palombi: Piazza Testaccio 38-42. Tel. 0039(0)6/5740039. Ketumbar: Via Galvani, 24. Tel. 0039(0)6/57305338. The Roman version of Paris’s Buddha bar. Japonese restaurant with mediterranean influence. Minimal furniture, great ambience. Lounge music. Pizzerie: Bars & Pubs & Disco: Alibi: Via di Monte Testaccio, 40. Tel. 0039(0)6/5743448. Amongst the most famous gay disco in Rome. Full of atmosphere. Large dance floor, two bars and a VIP area. Wonderful panoramic terrace. Alinari - Bar Pasticceria: Via Gustavo Bianchi. Home made production of pastries. Not to be missed the ciambelle (fried donuts). Caffè Latino: Via di Monte Testaccio, 96. Tel. 0039(0)6/57288556. Historic disco pub of the area. Live concerts and good selection of funky acid jazz. Etò: Via Galvani, 46. Tel. 0039(0)6/5748268. White themed minimal designed furniture. Lounge music. Ex Magazzini: Via dei Magazzini Generali 8-bis. Tel. 0039(0)6/5758040. Ex Magazzini is housed in a converted warehouse and offers entertainment at all hours. Starting from a drink, you can then watch a theatre or a film. Later good music. Giolitti a Testaccio: Via Vespucci, 35. Tel. 0039(0)6/5746006. Artists and actors meeting point. Home made cream filled cornetto and gelati.
About Testaccio:
Working-class neighbourhood Testaccio groups around a couple of main squares (Piazza Testaccio and Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice). A tight-knit community with a great covered market (mercato di Testaccio) and a number of bars and small trattorias that was for many years synonymous with the slaughterhouse that sprawls down to the Tiber just beyond. In the last couple of decades Testaccio has evolved from meatpacking district into a hedonistic hotspot with countless of trendy bars, clubs and restaurants. A very trendy place to live, real estate prices have soared accordingly. Some contradictions have emerged, with vegetarian restaurants opening their doors in an area still known for meat dishes served in its traditional trattorias, and gay and alternative clubs standing check-by-jowl with the car-repair shops gouged into Monte Testaccio. The area is full of hip bars, clubs and restaurants.
Not to be missed:
Sites and Monuments: Mercato di Testaccio: Piazza Testaccio. The epicentre of Testaccio life is the covered fruit and vegetables market. Functional, genuine and chip. The slaughterhouse Mattatoio, once the area’s main employer, is now home to the Centro Sociale and “Villaggio Globale”, a space used for concerts, raves and the like, along with stabling for the city’s horse-and-carriage drivers and a gymnasium. The Villaggio Globale also houses something called the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (Macro) in Piazza Orazio Giustiniani just inside the main gate, which stages temporary exhibitions of Italian artists until late at night. Monte Testaccio: which gives the area its name, is a 35-metre-high mound created out of the shards of Roman amphorae that were dumped here over several centuries. The ancients were not aware of the fact that terracotta amphorae could be recycled, and consequently broke them up into small shards and lay down in an olderly manner, sprinkling quicklime on them to dissolve the residual wine or oil and so creating the mountain you see today. It’s an odd sight, the ceramic curls clearly visible through the tufts of grass that crowns its higher reaches, the bottom layers hollowed out by the workshops of car and bike mechanics – and, now, clubs and bars. Nearby the Piramide Cestia, the mossy pyramidal tomb of one Caius Cestius, who died in 12 BC. Cestius had spent some time in Egypt, and part of his will decreed that all his slaves should be freed, and the white pyramid you see today was thrown up by them in only 330 days of what must have been joyful building. It’s open to the public on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, though ypu can visit the cats who live here, and the volunteers who care for them. Immediately south of Testaccio, the industrial neighbourhood of Ostiense is perhaps the city’s most up-and-coming area, home to those who can no longer afford to live in already gentrified Testaccio.
The Centrale Montemartini in Via Ostiense 106, it is worth a visit, home of the Hellenic statues from the Capitoline collections. An interesting mixture of ancient and new, sculptures amongst hydraulic pumps, boilers and steel tubes.
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