A Testaccio Food Day: The Market, Monte dei Cocci and the Pyramid
The short answer. Market first, because it shuts at half past three. Lunch in the rione. Then the Non-Catholic Cemetery, which closes at five, and the pyramid from the street, which is free and needs no booking. Monte dei Cocci only if you called 060608 before you travelled. Centrale Montemartini if the afternoon is still going.
Testaccio rewards being done in the right order, and the order is not obvious, because three of its five attractions have opening rules that do not line up. This guide sets out a day that works, hour by hour, and says what has to be booked before you leave home. The taste of Testaccio food tour listings handle the morning half of it for you.
Why the order matters here
Mercato Testaccio is open Monday to Saturday, 7:00 to 15:30, and publishes no Sunday hours. The Non-Catholic Cemetery opens Monday to Saturday 9:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, and Sundays and holidays 9:00 to 13:00. Monte Testaccio opens only for escorted visits booked through 060608. The Pyramid of Cestius is listed by its own ministry as temporarily closed, opening on scheduled dates booked through Coopculture.
Put those four together and only one sequence works on a weekday. Everything on things to do in Testaccio carries its own hours, so you can check before you commit.
What to book before you leave home
- Your food walk. A week ahead is comfortable; the market mornings fill first, and almost all of them cancel free up to 24 hours before.
- Monte dei Cocci, on 060608. Escorted groups of no more than thirty, €4 full and €3 reduced, free for Rome residents, entering at Via Nicola Zabaglia 24. This is the only one that cannot be arranged on the day.
- Nothing else. The cemetery takes walk-ins, the pyramid is free from the street, and the market has no ticket.
8:30 — coffee and a maritozzo
Come in on metro line B to Piramide and walk the six hundred flat metres into the grid. Before anything else, a coffee standing at a bar and, if you can get one before nine, a maritozzo: a soft bun split and packed with whipped cream, which is the Roman breakfast and the correct way to start a day here.
It is also, as every review of the market walks points out, a poor way to start a morning of fourteen tastings. Do it anyway, or do not — the guides will tell you not to.
9:30 — the market, with a guide
This is the centre of the day and it wants two to three and a half hours. A guided morning gives you the order to eat in, the quantity to know whether you like something, and somebody who can say what it is. The longest of the walks here runs to fourteen tastings across eight family-run places, with an hour and a half inside the market itself and a sit-down pasta lunch in the middle.
If you would rather do it alone, the Mercato Testaccio page sets out which counters are which and how to ask for a hundred grams of anything. Either way, walk the whole aisle once before you buy.
12:30 — lunch, sitting down
Most of the guided mornings build this in. If yours does not, the cooked-food counters in the market sell by the piece and nobody minds you eating where you bought: a supplì, a slice of pizza bianca and something braised in a roll is the standard order. The trattorias in the grid open around half past twelve and this is where the offal dishes live if you want them. What to eat in Testaccio explains each.
14:00 — Monte dei Cocci, if you booked
If you made the call, this is when to use it: the mound is five minutes from the market along Via Galvani and Via Nicola Zabaglia, and the escorted visit takes about an hour. There are no lavatories on the site and it is not wheelchair accessible.
If you did not book, you can still walk its whole flank from the street, which is what several of the food walks do. You will see the terraced shape of it and the shards in the cut banks, and that is a good deal more than most visitors to Rome ever see of it.
15:00 — the cemetery
Via Caio Cestio 6, against the pyramid, four hundred metres from the market. Free, with a requested €5 donation, open until 17:00 with last entry at 16:30. Keats is here, so are Shelley's ashes and Antonio Gramsci, among more than six thousand graves gathered since 1716.
It is the quietest half-hour in this part of Rome and the best argument for not rushing the afternoon. Groups of up to fourteen need to book ahead; two people do not.
16:00 — the pyramid, from outside
Walk out of the cemetery gate and it is in front of you: 36.40 metres of marble-faced brick built between 18 and 12 BC, in 330 days, under the terms of Gaius Cestius' will, and later built into the Aurelian wall. Its own ministry page lists it as temporarily closed to the public, and it opens only on scheduled free openings booked through Coopculture.
From Piazzale Ostiense it costs nothing and needs no booking, and that is how most people see it. Check cultura.gov.it if you want the inside.
16:30 — Centrale Montemartini, or a drink
If the afternoon is still going, walk ten minutes south down Via Ostiense to a decommissioned power station where Roman marbles stand against diesel engines and turbines. It takes the standard municipal museum ticket and it is the least crowded good museum in Rome.
If it is not, the bars around Piazza Testaccio and Piazza di Santa Maria Liberatrice do an aperitivo from six, and you have earned it.
How to get between the stops
You walk. Everything on this day sits inside a loop of about two and a half kilometres, and none of it is uphill: Piramide to the cemetery gate on Via Caio Cestio, along Via Nicola Zabaglia under the flank of the mound, past the old slaughterhouse gates on Piazza Orazio Giustiniani, into the market on Via Galvani, and back out to Piazza Testaccio for the tram.
The one stretch that needs a decision is Centrale Montemartini, ten minutes further south down Via Ostiense. If legs are the constraint, take tram 3 back to Piramide from Zabaglia instead and end the day where you started.
Where to eat if your walk does not include lunch
Two options, and both are in the rione. The cooked-food counters inside the market sell by the piece, most have a shelf to stand at, and a supplì, a slice of pizza bianca and something braised in a roll costs a few euros. The trattorias in the grid open around half past twelve and are where the quarter's offal dishes live: coda alla vaccinara, trippa, coratella.
Both close the gap between a morning of tastings and an afternoon of walking, and neither needs a booking on a weekday. What to eat in Testaccio says what to order at each.
What to do with a Sunday
The market is shut and the cemetery closes at one. Take the cooking class instead — three hours at a kitchen table on Via Galvani making pasta and three Roman sauces, then eating them — or cross the river for a Trastevere evening walk, which runs seven days a week. Testaccio or Trastevere weighs the two.
The day in one table
| Time | What | Booked ahead? |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30 | Coffee and a maritozzo at a bar | No |
| 9:30 | Mercato Testaccio, with a guide | Yes, about a week |
| 12:30 | Lunch, in the market or a trattoria | Included on most walks |
| 14:00 | Monte dei Cocci, escorted | Yes, on 060608 |
| 15:00 | The Non-Catholic Cemetery | No, unless you are a group |
| 16:00 | Piramide Cestia, from the street | No |
| 16:30 | Centrale Montemartini | No |
| 18:00 | Aperitivo in Piazza Testaccio | No |
How to shorten it to half a day
Keep the market walk and the cemetery, drop everything else. That is three and a half hours of guided morning, a lunch and half an hour among the cypresses, and it is the version most visitors should take. The two-hour private market walk from Piramide compresses it further, and its fare carries lunch and drinks.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mercato Testaccio open every day?
Can I climb Monte Testaccio?
Is the Pyramid of Cestius open to visitors?
Is the Non-Catholic Cemetery worth adding to the day?
Can I fit a Testaccio food tour and the Colosseum into one day?
Is there a metro station in Testaccio?
Book the morning half of this day from Testaccio Food Tours.
Walks that cover the morning half of this day
Rome Food Tour: Small-Group Testaccio Market & Local Tastings
Three and a half hours in Testaccio, an hour and a half of it inside the market.
From $79 per person
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Testaccio Quarter Market and Pyramid Food and Sightseeing Tour
The pyramid, the cemetery, Monte dei Cocci and the market in one loop.
From $373 per person
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Rome Testaccio Market Walking food Tour and surrounding
Two private hours from Piramide, with lunch and drinks in the fare.
From $117 per person
Check Availability