A working quarter built around a slaughterhouse and a hill of broken Roman jars. It is where Roman cooking was born and where it is still done best.
Slaughterhouse workers here were partly paid in offal, the "fifth quarter" of the animal. Their cooking became Rome's: oxtail stew, tripe, and rigatoni with pajata.
The quarter's odd hill, Monte Testaccio, is made of about 53 million broken amphorae, oil jars dumped from the Roman river port. Trattorias are dug into its sides.
Eat at the covered market's lunch counters, Felice, where the cacio e pepe is tossed at the table, and Flavio al Velavevodetto inside the amphora hill. At night there are Da Remo's thin pizzas and Trapizzino's stuffed pizza triangles.
Between meals, walk to the Pyramid of Cestius, a Roman's tomb from about 12 BC, and the Non-Catholic Cemetery, where Keats and Shelley are buried.
A slow afternoon and evening, with sights between courses.
Pick a counter in the covered market for a sandwich of the day's stew.
A white marble pyramid built into the Aurelian walls.
Cypresses, cats and the graves of Keats and Shelley.
Walk round the amphora hill and look for the broken pottery in its walls.
Cacio e pepe at Felice, or thin Roman pizza at Da Remo, then a Trapizzino for the road.
Metro B to Piramide, or tram 3 and 8.
Open mornings to mid-afternoon, Monday to Saturday; the lunch counters close first.
Try the Roman classics: cacio e pepe, amatriciana, carbonara, and coda alla vaccinara.
Rome practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
