Monte Testaccio
Monte Testaccio
4.5
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Neighborhood: Testaccio
Put the house music on replay and you have Testaccio, an ancient Roman port and former working class neighborhood where the bass is set to high almost every night of the week. Its collection of discoteche (nightclubs), street parties, and crowded restaurants give it its well-deserved party reputation. During the daytime, Testaccio is more easy listening than club hit, the area is full of locally owned small businesses and has one of the city's larger produce markets.
How to get there
- Piramide • 8 min walk
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7,290 within 3 miles
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2,489 within 6 miles
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
4.5
35 reviews
Excellent
11
Very good
22
Average
2
Poor
0
Terrible
0
Brian E20
Stratford City, UK33 contributions
Oct 2019
Monte Testaccio is quite hard to get into, as the tours run at odd times. But the place is a wonder because you can actually take a little time to look at everything. Yes, the gardens are amazing, but there treats such as a room full of plaster copies of famous statues and some Renaissance Ceiling you can almost touch.
Written April 13, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The Spanish Steps Apartment
Rome, Italy34,239 contributions
Sep 2015 • Couples
I have walked by, or around, Monte Testaccio so many, many times -- seeing it only from behind a fence and an always-locked gate. So, I jumped at the chance when Katie Parla was giving tours of the site. Monte Testaccio is essentially an enormous, ancient trash dump where Romans stacked broken bits of olive oil amphorae when the oil residue went rancid and the amphorae could not be re-used. With land in ancient Rome being at a premium, the trash heap was carefully planned and up, up it went! It now towers over Testaccio. Really amazing to walk up it with the broken amphorae bits making an almost musical sound under your feet. And, amazing views from the top!
Written September 9, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Bari
Evora District, Portugal282 contributions
Mar 2015 • Friends
Monte Testaccio is an ancient Roman dump made mostly of fragments of broken clay vessels. There are tours you can take to explore the excavation points of the "mountain" (I'm from Colorado, so it's more like a hill for me). It's fascinating that the Romans used this site to dump broken pots and old olive oil. In addition to touring the excavation site, you can also walk around the hill and go to restaurants, clubs and galleries that have been carved into the hill. Testaccio also has a wonderful farmer's market that is fun to visit. I recommend taking time to do this- I'd link it up with a trip to the Protestant Cemetary.
Written April 6, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
kirsten m
Stratford-upon-Avon, UK149 contributions
Oct 2019
Met a local who recommended the area; went after the Protestant Cemetery [Keats Shelly graves] and found a Saturday morning market and artisanal street area behind a car park. Area seems to be teeming with bohemian life and night clubs [in the evening] a real Glasto vibe and fantastic local food...
Written October 21, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PatMurff
Ballymoney, UK633 contributions
Apr 2019 • Family
Rome is a quirky place. It has been around for so long that it has seen pretty much everything. Monte Testaccio is one of those quirky things you could only see in a city that has been populated for a few thousand years.
Imagine if you will a city with a population of a million people when most of the world was living in caves and mud huts. Such a huge population had to be fed and watered. This was done through the port of Ostia as well as other ways. The area around Monte Testaccio had warehousing to store the amphorae of wine and olive oil. Of course some of these amphorae got broken in the process and not having friendly bin collections, the Romans dumped these broken pots.
Well the pots are still here. A combination of population and time has led to there being a huge mountain of them. It's an interesting place to visit. Is it worth a special visit? Probably not but if you are in the area visiting the pyramid or the commonwealth servicemen's cemetery it is worth taking a walk around this mountain of industry.
Imagine if you will a city with a population of a million people when most of the world was living in caves and mud huts. Such a huge population had to be fed and watered. This was done through the port of Ostia as well as other ways. The area around Monte Testaccio had warehousing to store the amphorae of wine and olive oil. Of course some of these amphorae got broken in the process and not having friendly bin collections, the Romans dumped these broken pots.
Well the pots are still here. A combination of population and time has led to there being a huge mountain of them. It's an interesting place to visit. Is it worth a special visit? Probably not but if you are in the area visiting the pyramid or the commonwealth servicemen's cemetery it is worth taking a walk around this mountain of industry.
Written May 17, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
pakabay
Adelaide, Australia2,509 contributions
Sep 2018 • Friends
Monte Testaccio or Broken Pot Mountain is a man-made mound built from broken terracotta and ceramic pots or Amphora, dating back to the days of the Roman Empire.
It is the largest "waste" heap discovered in the ancient world and has a base size of 20,000 square meters and holds over 500,000 cubic meters of pots. Historians estimate that there are the remains of 50 million pots here! Puts the size and power of Rome at the time into perspective.
It is understandably behind a high fence but you can easily see pieces of broken pots in the mound, when you walk along the side of it, on via Galvani [opposite is petrol station].
Fascinating history.
It is the largest "waste" heap discovered in the ancient world and has a base size of 20,000 square meters and holds over 500,000 cubic meters of pots. Historians estimate that there are the remains of 50 million pots here! Puts the size and power of Rome at the time into perspective.
It is understandably behind a high fence but you can easily see pieces of broken pots in the mound, when you walk along the side of it, on via Galvani [opposite is petrol station].
Fascinating history.
Written December 15, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
toad69
Bishops Stortford, UK296 contributions
May 2017
Interesting even though the park was closed so we could only view from outside. Several viewing points around the hill so that you could see the broken shards of amphora that the hill is formed from.
Written May 16, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Raintree_Thailand
Bangkok, Thailand4,280 contributions
Jul 2017 • Solo
Rome never ceases to amaze! I've visited dozens of times and walked most of the city. But had never taken notice of Monte Testaccio until recently. The place is virtually unknown by tourists (note less than 20 TripAdvisor reviews!), but if fascinating. Created by years and years of disposing of clay olive oil jars unable to be reused when oil becomes rancid, the mountain towers nearly 50 meters tall and about a kilometer around the base. Unbelievable! Access is only at selected days and times, but well worth a visit, even if you can't climb to the top.
Written July 11, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Anyone know when the tours of the MonteTestaccio take place?
Written March 15, 2024
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