Eat
Pizzeria Formula 1 (legendary cheap pizza — massive, €5-8, cash only), Said (chocolate factory turned restaurant — extraordinary), Pommidoro (old-school trattoria where Pasolini ate).
Drink
Craft beer: Birra+ and Salotto42. Wine: Enoteca Province Romane. Cocktails: the bars along Via dei Volsci. San Lorenzo is Rome's cheapest going-out neighbourhood.
See
Street art (San Lorenzo has some of Rome's best murals), Cimitero Monumentale del Verano (Rome's monumental cemetery — extraordinary 19th-century sculpture), Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura (4th-century church with stunning cloisters).
Vibe
Raw, young, political, creative. Heavily bombed in WWII (the only Rome neighbourhood hit), which gives it a rebuilt, anti-establishment character. Not polished — that's the point.
Why this neighbourhood?
Every great Italy trip includes at least one neighbourhood where you stop sightseeing and start living. This could be yours.