A unique walk through the streets of Rome

Are you one of those travelers who are always trying to have a unique experience, instead of going straight and following the group, they decide to go right and get lost through the local streets and restaurants. When we talk about Rome, many people will tell you that this is almost impossible, because Rome is really a super touristic city and there is simply no escape from the tourists.

Thanks to my longer stay in the Eternal city, I managed to make a short list for all those travelers like me who can still experience Rome in a different way and far from the chaos of the city center.

I’ll start with the EUR neighborhood. An interesting place for all the lovers of architecture and photography. You can get to the EUR by metro line B. This is a normal neighborhood, with residential buildings, companies and offices where you rarely notice a tourist. Here you can take a walk and relax in a really nice and spacious park, where the waterfalls garden has recently been reopened, and it’s really perfect place to relax and have a lunch break. 

After the break, visit the Palace of Italian Civilization or commonly known as the “Colosseo Quadrato”. It is a fascist architecture of Mussolini, inspired by the original Colosseum, six horizontal rows each with nine semicircular arch. Inside you can visit the permanent exhibition “Made in Italy”. Another interesting building in this neighborhood is the congress center “la Nuvola di Fuksas”, where the interior design is in the form of a cloud.

From EUR, with the metro line B, you can head towards the Garbatella neighborhood created during fascism period. Here you will see more tourists who are just staying in this neighborhood, but mostly all of them spend the day among the most famous tourist attractions in Rome, so this makes Garbatella neighborhood great for escape from the crazy crowds. In Garbatella for the first time after two weeks in Rome, I felt the Italian spirit, accidentally I ended up in a bar for a coffee break, but after I saw what was going on in front of the entrance of the bar, I decided to sit down for few minutes. All the old people from the place were seated on the metal chairs in front of the bar, and there was the local market on the street. All of them were gossiping in a Roman dialect, a truly unique experience, especially for someone like me, who likes the Italian language and understands a little bit of the Roman dialect. But apart from this, in Garbatella you can also visit one place that looks like a small village in the neighborhood, where it seems that the time stopped in the ’20s and probably only a little has changed since then. The houses are still low and the area is divided by gardens, yards, laundries and dryers that are still in use. Here it is obligatory to speak a Roman dialect.

From Garbatella by bus you can reach the district of Tor Marancia, many residential buildings and all of them on each facade have huge graffiti. If you like street art is definitely worth it!

Parco degli acquedotti is another place where I met only some Japanese tourist and all the rest were locals who came to the park to read or jogging. The park is also part of the movie “La grande bellezza”. While sitting and chilling on a bench you can enjoy the view in front of you – a huge well preserved aqueduct.

Testaccio is a fancy neighborhood in Rome, if you want to go for fancy clubs and bars definitely here you will find a very large selection and you will meet many locals.

Pigneto is one of those neighborhoods that has been known like the dangerous quarter in Rome, but now it is becoming an alternative and a very attractive place for aperitivo, cultural events and  night life. There are bunch of restaurants and bars for everyone’s taste, and there is also plenty of street art.

Coppedè is another unique neighborhood near the center of Rome, near Villa Borghese. In this quarter there are also many embassies. The place has several streets with buildings and fountains with unusual architecture.

Bonus tips:

If you are graffiti lovers, head down the Tiber River near the Trastevere (the bohemian neighborhood) and enjoy the art around you. If you have more free time, don’t forget to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art – MACRO and the unique 21st Century Art Museum MAXXI