Monte dei Cocci (Testaccio Hill) is an entirely artificial hill in Rome, 35 metres high, made of approximately 53 million broken terracotta amphorae — the shattered remains of the transport containers that carried olive oil, wine, fish sauce, and grain from Spain, North Africa, and Gaul to Rome's warehouses between roughly 140 BC and 260 AD. The Romans broke the amphorae systematically after each use (the residue was too difficult to clean; it was cheaper to break the container than decontaminate it) and piled the fragments in a government disposal area by the Tiber. Over 1,000 years, it became a hill. The Testaccio neighbourhood that grew around the hill in the 19th century is now one of the least touristic and most genuinely Roman districts in the city. Rome guide →
Rome → Plan my Rome trip →City: Rome (Municipio I) | Monte dei Cocci: 35 m artificial hill, ~53 million broken amphorae, 1st century BC – 3rd century AD | Neighbourhood character: Working-class, authentic, minimal tourist infrastructure | Key sites: Monte Testaccio, Mercato di Testaccio, Cimitero Acattolico (Protestant Cemetery), Mattatoio (former slaughterhouse, now MACRO museum) | Getting there: Metro B, Piramide stop
The Monte Testaccio (or Monte dei Cocci — the Hill of Sherds) is one of the strangest objects in Rome. It is an artificial hill, 35 metres high and approximately 1 km in circumference, made entirely of broken terracotta amphorae fragments — the systematic disposal of the containers used to transport olive oil (primarily from the province of Baetica in Spain) to Rome's commercial warehouses (horrea) along the Tiber between roughly 140 BC and 260 AD.
The disposal was organised. The amphora fragments were arranged in layers with lime between them (to prevent the oil residue from creating fire hazard and to hold the hill together). The layers are still visible on the cut sections of the hill. Archaeological analysis of the stamps on the amphora handles (each amphora carried the producer's stamp, the importer's stamp, the weight, and the year of production) has produced one of the most detailed datasets in Roman economic history — the movement of olive oil from the Spanish provinces to Rome is documented at the individual-container level for over a century.
The hill today: its surface is covered in informal terraced bars and restaurants that have carved their premises into the amphora-fragment matrix. In summer, the wine bars on the southern slope are among the best places to drink wine in Rome. The hill is not an archaeological park but a living neighbourhood feature.
The Testaccio neighbourhood was built in the 1880s on the site of the Roman horrea (warehouses) that once processed goods arriving at the Tiber port. The construction followed a specific Umbertine urban plan — regular grid of streets, uniform apartment buildings, the slaughterhouse (Mattatoio) as the neighbourhood's economic anchor. For most of the 20th century, Testaccio was Rome's working-class neighbourhood par excellence — the workers of the slaughterhouse and the Tiber docks lived here. The local cuisine reflects this: quinto quarto (the "fifth quarter" — offal, the parts of the slaughtered animal that the workers received as payment: tripe, tongue, tail, sweetbreads, liver). Coda alla vaccinara (oxtail in tomato, celery, and cocoa), rigatoni con la pajata (pasta with calf intestine, still containing the milk), trippa alla romana (Roman tripe) — these are the original Testaccio dishes, developed from the workers' wage-in-meat economy.
The Mercato di Testaccio moved from its original outdoor location (Piazza Testaccio) to a purpose-built covered market building in 2012. It is consistently recommended by serious Rome food writers as the best food market in the city for the combination of fresh produce quality, the number of food stalls (street food, cooked dishes, cheese, charcuterie) within the market building, and the authentically local character — the clientele is neighbourhood residents shopping for dinner rather than tourists photographing photogenic vegetables.
The market runs Tuesday through Saturday, 7am–2pm. Key stops: the fresh pasta vendors (supplì — the Roman fried risotto ball, the Testaccio version being considered the standard), the offal stall (for the quinto quarto experience at street food prices), the cheese vendor with Roman pecorino and local goat's milk cheeses, and the porchetta van that arrives around 9am.
The Cimitero Acattolico (Non-Catholic Cemetery, commonly called the Protestant Cemetery) at the base of the Aurelian Wall near the Piramide di Cestio is the burial ground for non-Catholic foreigners who died in Rome from 1738 onward. Among those buried here: John Keats (died in Rome 1821, aged 25), Percy Bysshe Shelley (drowned off the coast of Tuscany 1822, cremated on the beach, buried here), Antonio Gramsci (the Italian communist philosopher, died 1937), and several thousand others whose graves make this one of the most concentrated sites of Romantic-era European cultural history in Italy. Keats's tombstone reads, at his own request: "Here lies One Whose Name was Writ in Water." Entry: donation (€3 suggested). Open daily 9am–5pm (shorter Sunday). Rome guide →
Getting there: Metro B, Piramide stop (directly adjacent to the Piramide di Cestio and the Protestant Cemetery). Alternatively, Metro B Circo Massimo or tram 3 from Trastevere. Walking from the Circus Maximus: 15 minutes south. What to do in sequence: Morning market at Mercato di Testaccio (Tuesday–Saturday, before 2pm); walk to Monte dei Cocci for a look at the hill and the wine bars; Protestant Cemetery and the Piramide di Cestio (the actual pyramid — the tomb of Gaius Cestius, 18–12 BC, the only Egyptian-style pyramid in Rome); lunch at one of the traditional restaurants on Via Monte Testaccio or Via Marmorata (budget €15–25 for a full Roman lunch).
Testaccio is a working-class neighbourhood in Rome built in the 1880s on the site of the ancient Roman river port, centred on the artificial hill of Monte dei Cocci (Monte Testaccio) — a 35-metre hill made of approximately 53 million broken Roman amphorae. It contains the Mercato di Testaccio (Rome's best food market), the Protestant Cemetery (burial site of Keats and Shelley), the Piramide di Cestio (Rome's only Egyptian-style pyramid), and the former slaughterhouse (now the MACRO museum). It is the most authentically Roman neighbourhood in the city centre for food culture and daily life.
Monte dei Cocci (also called Monte Testaccio) is an artificial hill in the Testaccio neighbourhood of Rome, 35 metres high and approximately 1 km in circumference, made entirely of broken terracotta amphora fragments — the systematic disposal of olive oil transport containers from the Roman period (roughly 140 BC to 260 AD). Approximately 53 million broken amphorae were layered with lime to create the hill over centuries. Archaeological analysis of the stamps on the amphora handles has made this the best-documented single commodity supply system in Roman economic history. Today the hill's southern slope is lined with wine bars and restaurants carved into the sherd matrix.
John Keats (1795–1821) and Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) are buried in the Protestant Cemetery (Cimitero Acattolico) in the Testaccio neighbourhood of Rome, at the base of the Aurelian Wall near the Piramide di Cestio. Keats died in Rome in February 1821, aged 25, from tuberculosis; his tombstone reads, per his own request, "Here lies One Whose Name was Writ in Water." Shelley drowned off the Tuscan coast in July 1822 and was cremated on the beach before burial in Rome. Also buried here: Antonio Gramsci (the Italian communist philosopher, died 1937). Entry by donation (€3 suggested); open daily 9am–5pm.
The Mercato di Testaccio is consistently rated the best food market in Rome for authentic quality and local character. The market operates Tuesday–Saturday, 7am–2pm, in a purpose-built covered building at Via Beniamino Franklin. The mix of fresh produce vendors, fish sellers, the legendary supplì (Roman fried rice ball) stalls, offal vendors, cheese counters, and porchetta van makes it a concentrated Rome food experience. The clientele is primarily neighbourhood residents shopping for daily meals; the tourist presence is low compared to the Campo de' Fiori or Piazza Vittorio markets.
Quinto quarto ("fifth quarter") is the Roman offal cooking tradition that developed in Testaccio from the working-class economy of the slaughterhouse workers, who received the less desirable animal parts as part of their wages. The four "quarters" of a slaughtered animal (two forelegs, two hindlegs) went to the wealthy buyers; the fifth quarter (offal — tripe, liver, kidney, tongue, tail, sweetbreads, intestines) went to the workers. The resulting dishes — coda alla vaccinara (oxtail in tomato and cocoa), rigatoni con la pajata (pasta with calf intestine), trippa alla romana, coratella (offal with artichokes) — are among the most distinctive elements of Roman cuisine.
Testaccio + Trastevere + Pigneto + Ostiense — the Rome that Romans actually live in.
Plan my Rome trip →The Piramide di Cestio is the tomb of Gaius Cestius, a Roman magistrate and member of the Septemviri epulones (a religious college), built between 18 and 12 BC in the Egyptian pyramid form that was briefly fashionable among Roman élites after Augustus's conquest of Egypt (30 BC). At 36 metres high, it is the only Egyptian-style pyramid in Rome. The pyramid is incorporated into the Aurelian Wall (270–275 AD) at the point where the wall meets the Ostiense gate — the wall builders found it easier to incorporate the existing structure than demolish it. The interior chamber is decorated with late Republican fresco fragments. Interior visits are available occasionally through guided tours (check the Roma Pass schedule or the Comune di Roma archaeological services website).
The Mattatoio (slaughterhouse) of Testaccio was the central Rome municipal abattoir from 1888 until 1975, when the facility was moved to the city outskirts. The building complex — an impressive industrial structure in red brick and cast iron by the architect Gioacchino Ersoch — has been progressively converted since the 1990s into a cultural complex. The MACRO Testaccio (Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma) occupied part of the building for several years; the complex now hosts temporary exhibitions, the Rome University architecture faculty, the Città dell'Altra Economia (alternative economy market), and a circus arts school. The former animal pens and transport corridors are now exhibition spaces that retain the original industrial character of the building.
The best Testaccio restaurants for Roman quinto quarto cuisine: Flavio al Velavevodetto (Via di Monte Testaccio 97, literally built into the Monte dei Cocci, with exposed amphora sherds in the dining room walls — the coda alla vaccinara and rigatoni con la pajata are the benchmark versions); Roscioli Salumeria con Cucina (Via dei Giubbonari, strictly speaking in the Campo de' Fiori zone but worth noting for its serious Roman salumi and wine list); and the street food stands in the Mercato di Testaccio itself (the supplì vendor has been cited as Rome's best). Budget €15–25 for a full quinto quarto lunch including house wine.