A place to stay in Rome

Roam Rome hosts a single apartment in Testaccio, a neighborhood where people live their everyday life. You don’t plan around crowds or logistics here. You step outside, and the neighborhood already works.

Testaccio is where real Rome happens. Small grocery stores on every block, an organic supermarket, a large pharmacy that actually has everything, and a wine shop with a serious selection.

You can eat extremely well here without planning weeks ahead. The restaurants are authentic, busy with locals, and you don’t need to strategize reservations ahead of time.

There’s the market, not just produce, but real street food. You can sit down, eat properly, and spend under ten euros.

From the apartment, moving around is easy. Several bus lines stop within a block and connect directly to the historic center, Trastevere, and across the river.

If you like to walk, most places fall naturally into the day: about 20 minutes to the Foro Romano, 15 to Circo Massimo, Trastevere, or the Terme di Caracalla, and roughly 10 minutes to the metro.

A bit more about the neighborhood

Cafés matter in Testaccio. Pastries are excellent, coffee is fast, and people actually stop multiple times a day: morning, after lunch, late afternoon.

There’s an independent cinema that locals still go to, not because it’s “alternative,” but because it’s part of the neighborhood routine.

At night, the area doesn’t shut down. There are countless late venues, informal wine bars, places that stay open because people are there and not because they’re chasing trends.

Piazza Testaccio is the neighborhood’s natural meeting point, busy throughout the day, relaxed in the evening. Once home to the local market, it was redesigned in recent years and today centers around the restored Fountain of the Amphorae. It’s a place where people pass through, stop for a drink, meet friends, and linger without planning to. In summer, Piazza Testaccio comes alive with concerts and outdoor events, drawing locals into the square well into the evening.

The Mattatoio is one of Testaccio’s defining spaces: a former slaughterhouse turned cultural center. Restored in the 2000s, it now hosts exhibitions, performances, and events, and is closely tied to Rome’s contemporary art scene through the Academy of Fine Arts and Roma Tre’s architecture school. It’s active year-round and especially lively in summer.

On Sundays, you can walk to Porta Portese. Porta Portese is Rome’s largest and most famous flea market, held every Sunday in the Trastevere area. For Romans, it’s a weekly ritual; for visitors, a window into an older, messier, very real side of the city. The market stretches across a wide area near the historic Porta Portese gate and dates back to the years after World War II, when informal trading and bartering filled the streets. That spirit never really left. It’s loud, crowded, and unpredictable: a mix of voices, cultures, and characters. Over the years it’s appeared in films and songs that capture everyday Roman life, becoming part of the city’s collective memory. You can find almost anything here: antiques and vintage pieces, books, records, furniture, clothes, tools, electronics, and objects that defy classification. As a local saying goes, “you can find everything, from a pill to a jumbo jet.”