Garbatella
A 1920s garden suburb of courtyards, where Rome has its Sunday lunch.
Garbatella is a piece of Rome that most visitors never see, and a lot of Romans think is the best bit. It was built in the 1920s for dock and railway workers, on the English garden-city model, as a series of numbered blocks around shared courtyards and gardens.
The result is a neighbourhood of stairways, little squares and flowering courtyards that feels like a village inside the city. It is lived in, so go quietly and keep your voice down inside the courtyards.
What to see
The courtyards of the first lotti
Start at Piazza Brin and walk into the earliest blocks. Each one is built around a courtyard with its own garden, steps and balconies.
The street art
Many walls in Garbatella carry murals, some political and some just decorative. They change, and it is worth looking up.
The local market and the bars
The neighbourhood has a lively bar culture and a flea market, and on a weekday you will see mostly locals.
Where to eat
We name a place only when we have checked that it is still trading, and show the date. Where we have not, we tell you what to look for.
A trattoria with no sign in English
What to look for
Garbatella's restaurants are for the neighbourhood. Look for a short menu, tables of families on a Sunday and the dish of the day written on a board.
Next neighbourhood
Centro Storico