35 min
40 min
B · 3
18.5 / km²
3
0
381
−22% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Testaccio
Testaccio is a small grid between the Aventine hill and the river, built around the nineteenth-century slaughterhouse. Roman offal cooking was invented here and is still done properly here, and the covered market is the one Romans shop at rather than photograph.
Getting out is easy in one direction and slow in the other. Metro B at Piramide is on the edge, three stops from the Colosseum, and Ostiense station next to it runs to Fiumicino. On foot, Piazza Navona is a little over half an hour, which in practice means you take the metro every time and the district stops feeling central.
Monte Testaccio, the hill made of Roman amphora shards, has clubs cut into its base and they run until 04:00 at weekends. That is a reason to come and a reason to check which street your room is on. The other thing to know is that Testaccio is small and self-contained: five good streets, then a ring road and the Ostiense industrial edge.
What works
- The best traditional Roman cooking in the city, at local prices
- Mercato Testaccio is a working market with serious lunch counters
- Metro B at Piramide, three stops from the Colosseum
- Ostiense station next door runs direct to Fiumicino airport
What does not
- Half an hour on foot to the centro storico, so you will ride instead
- The Monte Testaccio clubs run to 04:00 at weekends
- Five interesting streets and then a ring road: it is a small district
- Almost nothing here predates the 1890s, and no major sights at all
In Testaccio you can find great traditional Roman restaurants, and at night the zone is filled with discos.