Testaccio - food and contrasts

The first time I visited Testaccio was for a celebration. It was at the end of my first month in Italy, a boiling July. The gathering was held in a fifth floor flat opposite the bell tower of the church of Santa Maria Liberatrice on the Piazza of the same name just metres away fom the famed pizzeria 'Da Remo'. 

I grasped a glass of prosecco and walked out onto the balcony. To my left rose the Aventine hill dominated by the priory of the Knights of Malta and to my right the road stretched out, lined by rows of identical buildings. Down below in a small park some children played watched over by their parents. The bell struck the hour and the flat vibrated. I retreated indoors to where a lively debate was in progress. Where were we going to eat?

If you want a good beer.

Testaccio is the heartland of genuine Roman cuisine. Once know as 'the belly' or ' the slaughterhouse' of Rome and inhabited by 'vaccinari' or butchers, this is where the infamous 'fifth quarter' of Roman cuisine is dished up: the pigs' trotters, brains, genitals and other offal.

The trattorie that dot the grid of streets serve up traditional dishes such as pajata (intestines of milk-fed veal with rigatoni pasta), coda alla vaccinara (oxtail) or tripe in a rich tomato sauce, all of which are appreciated by the diehard fans of this cuisine.

But if offal isn't your thing, there are many other dishes you can try: carciofi alla Romana, abbacchio alla cacciatoria, fiori di zucca, pasta cacio pepe accompanied by a Castelli white or red wine are not to be missed.  

Or you may want to go food shopping. One of Rome's best grocery stores, Volpetti's, is on Via Marmorata. Just peering through the windows is a treat for the eyes whilst a glance inside is an assault on the olfactory senses. Not only does it have an extensive selection of Italian cheese and meat products as well as various pies and savoury pastries but this is also the place to come to for that hard to find slice of Stilton, or, as I did one Christmas, a smelly French vacherin. And just around the corner is Taverna Volpetti where you can sit down for a quick snack. 


 

Piazza Testaccio

Like all of the Roman rione (districts), Testaccio has its own fresh market. For many years, this had been situated on Piazza Testaccio.But in 2012, a new site on Via Galvani was inaugurated and the stalls moved there. Piazza Testaccio underwent a facelift and a fountain of amphorae from beside the Tiber was moved to the centre of the piazza.




Testaccio is  an area which got built around an ancient rubbish tip. In antiquity the area served as a port and cargo would be unloaded on the banks of the Tiber. In the 2nd century AD the state controlled reserves of olive oil were stored on the river banks.

 

Typical colours of this rione

Street art opposite the new market

The remains of broken amphorae, clay vessels (known as testae in Latin) were stacked alongside other detritus. Eventually they formed a hill which covers an area of 20,000 square metres and rises an estimated 35 metres in height. There are said to be the remains of about 53 million amphorae.




Today, Monte Testaccio or Monte dei Cocci is a site of archaeological importance and can only be visited with a guide. At the foot of the hill, in rundown looking shacks and houses are the discos and nightplaces (locali) to which young Romans and a few tourists flock at the weekends.

Next to Monte Testaccio is what remains of the slaughterhouse which gave the area its nickname. The mattatoio was a huge complex of pavilions built over 25,000 square metres. Each pavilion served different butchers and around the slaughterhouse buildings were erected in rows forming the distinctive grid that is Testaccio today.
  
The slaughterhouse closed down in 1975 and the various pavilions were converted into different facilities: a new wing of the Macro museum, the faculty of architecture for the Roma Tre university as well as the 'citta dell'altra economia'.... The various pavilions are still being transformed to date.

The frigorifero (fridge) of the old slaughterhouse.

Nowadays, Testaccio has completed the transition from a working class neighbourhood to a hip middle-class residential one. It is also ensconsed on the tourist route. Foodies are guided around the market and the food shops, some of which are losing their genuinity in the process. Tourists interested in the past can book a guided visit of Monte Testaccio or visit the cemetery where Byron and Shelley are laid.

the post office

Testaccio is where I like to wander through the grid of streets. I can stop off at my favourite shop 'Emporio delle spezie' to stock up on hard to find spices and teas. I may pause to look at the splendid array of cheeses at Volpetti's, but more likely I'll head straight down to the market and get a selection of fresh vegetables, a Sicilian cheese from the Sicilian stall and a snack before walking down past the cemetary and the pyramid. If I have time and if I'm there in the evening, I'll get a beer from 'L'Oasi della Birra' on Piazza Testaccio with a large platter of mixed cheeses and cold cuts.



And at least once every two months I'll go to the large post office, a great slab of Rationalist architecture from the 1930s, to pay the various bills that are the only thing my letter box gets.