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How a former slaughterhouse district became Rome’s hottest foodie destination
Roman feasting, Albania’s road less travelled, Oxford’s weird and wonderful – and much more … European travel hits from Good Weekend’s 2023 Dream Destinations issue.
Mercato Testaccio, a bustling 100-stall market.Credit: Alamy
Tasting life in Testaccio, Rome, Italy
Locals call Testaccio the heart of Rome. It’s also the liver, the kidneys, the tongue and the intestines – because this neighbourhood, a 25-minute walk south-west of the Colosseum, was formerly the home of Rome’s slaughterhouse, which closed in 1975.
Admittedly, that doesn’t exactly sound like a great selling point for a visit with my wife and two young daughters. But we’re following our stomachs, and in keeping with its past as the centre of nose-to-tail butchery, Testaccio has become the go-to food destination in the city.
“Even Romans treat Testaccio as a place to come to eat,” says Katie Parla, an American food writer who has lived in Rome for 20 years, sipping an early-morning coffee at Mercato Testaccio, a bustling 100-stall market. “The great thing about this market is that although it attracts tourists, it’s still a place where locals will shop and hang out at the bars to socialise.”
Sure enough, all around us purveyors are shifting plenty of cheeses, bread, meat, fruit and vegetables, while the lines at stalls such as Casa Manco (thick-crust pizza), Le Mani in Pasta (pasta dishes) and Zoé (inventive salads) are testament to how good they are.
A lot of visitors, and even other stallholders, make a beeline for Mordi e Vai, which translates as “bite and go”. Sergio Esposito worked most of his life in the slaughterhouse before opening this celebrated sandwich stall, with a desire to create delicious, affordable, portable food. Esposito died last year aged 79, and his son – who prepared delicious polpette (meatballs) and allesso di scottona (slow-cooked beef and chicory) sandwiches for us – keeps a chair outside the stall with a note taped to the back reading Riservato per il boss (reserved for the boss). Even as Testaccio changes and moves forward, it seems the past is not forgotten, and the old and new coexist.
Just across the street is Mattatoio, the former slaughterhouse, which has been transformed into a multipurpose complex that reflects the influx of a younger generation to Testaccio since the 1990s – an architecture school, a music school, contemporary art exhibition spaces, an organic market, a bike repair shop. There’s an area dedicated to street art, while just down the road you can see evidence of that artform in the wild: a striking work by Belgian artist Roa, featuring a giant wolf that spans the entire side of an apartment block.
It always pays to come to Testaccio hungry, so we return a few days later to sample the most talked-about modern street food in Rome. A decade ago, pizza chef Stefano Callegari set up Trapizzino in the heart of the neighbourhood to sell the namesake snack. To describe a trapizzino doesn’t even hint at how tasty it is – a triangular pizza pocket made with soft wheat flour and yeast, baked so it’s crunchy on the outside, with a choice of fillings including meatballs, tongue, braised oxtail, chicken cacciatore and more. It caught on so fast that Callegari now has five outlets across Rome.
On a third visit to the neighbourhood, we opt to kill two of Testaccio’s biggest birds with one stone. Renowned eatery Flavio al Velavevodetto is built into Monte Testaccio, an ancient hill created by the accumulated shards of discarded broken amphorae (earthenware pots) that were once used to transport honey, sugar, wine and olive oil.
Through the arched windows of the dining room, while tucking into classic Roman dishes such as tonnarelli cacio e pepe (thick spaghetti cooked al dente, with pecorino cheese and black pepper), you can gaze on cross-sections of the estimated 50 million pots that make up the hill. The signature tiramisu was so good that we were talking about it for weeks afterwards.
The pyramid of Cestius. Credit: Getty Images
After lunch, we go for a wander and find one of Rome’s most unlikely sights – an Egyptian-style pyramid. Standing 36 metres tall and estimated to have been built between 18 and 12BC, it was constructed as the tomb for Caius Cestius, a wealthy Roman magistrate.
Right next door is the Non-Catholic Cemetery, with beautifully tended gardens flowing up the hill in terraced steps. It’s the final resting place of two English poets – Keats and Shelley – the former’s headstone bearing the words “Young English Poet”, not his name. But the most photographed grave is that of someone far less well-known.
Sculptor William Story was so bereft at the loss of his beloved wife Emelyn that he carved a weeping angel slumped over her headstone, creating a lasting image of grief. He died only months after she passed, in 1895, and was buried alongside her.
As I wandered through this tranquil place with my wife and daughters, we spied a grave with a quote from Longfellow. In part it read: “There may be other cities that please us for a while, but Rome alone completely satisfies.” Testaccio is certainly testament to that, a neighbourhood that has gentrified while maintaining its roots, all the while feeding the old and the young with the best food Rome has to offer. Barry Divola
Driving the Dalmatian Coast, Croatia
Dubrovnik’s Fort Lovrjenac at sunset.Credit: Alamy
WHY: This spectacular coastline of mountains, river inlets and isolated beaches is studded with historical towns and backed by stunning nature reserves.
THE EXPERIENCE: Colonised by Romans, Byzantines and Venetians across a long, tumultuous history, the towns of Croatia’s Dalmatian coast are time-capsules of antiquity. Start with Zadar, with its glorious Venetian Land Gate built in 1543 at the entry to the old town. Go on to Split, where the remnants of Roman emperor Diocletian’s vast palace are encrusted with the additions of later centuries. Continue along the breathtaking coast drive to Dubrovnik – the medieval town is preserved almost perfectly on its sparkling harbour (and a must-see for fans of Game of Thrones, which was partly filmed there). Along the way, stop off to visit the waterfalls of the Krka national park near Sibenik, or take a boat to the island nature park of Lastovo, off the coast between Split and Dubrovnik. If you can, visit outside the summer months of July and August, but if you can’t, the experience is still worth the crowds.
IDEAL FOR: People who like a dose of history with nature.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Sardinia offers a fascinating Mediterranean mix of history, beaches and natural beauty. Helen Goh
Following the ghosts in Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh’s ghost tours include visits to notorious murder sites and the Edinburgh Vaults (pictured).Credit: Tim Elliott
WHY: A chance to step through a portal into atmospheric Edinburgh’s dark history.
THE EXPERIENCE: Edinburgh is often referred to as “the UK’s most haunted city”, with good reason. With a vast number of cemeteries and churchyards, it was a magnet for body-snatchers and grave-robbers, including Burke and Hare, who exhumed corpses and murdered at will in the 1820s, to sell bodies to local medical schools. Edinburgh, or “Auld Reekie”, as it was known, remains wonderfully spooky, a tangle of medieval architecture, carved stone taverns and, of course, the infamous wynds – narrow, half-lit walkways, barely the width of a man, that thread like sinews through the old town’s steepest reaches. Little wonder then, that ghost tours are a major attraction. The tours, which last around an hour, are part history lesson, part horror movie, with visits to notorious murder sites and the Edinburgh Vaults, a network of chambers that were built beneath the streets in the 1780s then abandoned, later frequented by murderers, drug addicts and prostitutes. Irrespective of your interest in the paranormal, the tours are the perfect introduction to one of the UK’s most atmospheric cities.
IDEAL FOR: Dark history buffs.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Perched atop a rocky ridge on Scotland’s north-eastern coast and flanked on three sides by the North Atlantic, Dunnottar Castle is a ruined medieval stronghold as spectacular as it is isolated. Tim Elliott
Swimming in the Peloponnese, Greece
Kalamitsi beach.Credit: Alamy
WHY: It’s where history meets lapping.
THE EXPERIENCE: If the islands are Greece’s playboy uncle, the Peloponnese is its brainy but attractive cousin. An easy drive from Athens, the peninsula hosts some of the showstoppers of ancient history (Mycenae and Epidaurus) but also olive groves, mountains and beautiful bays where you can wash off the dust. On the Mani side (south-west), wooded coves sit off charming stone villages like Kardamyli. The water is so clear it’s like swimming in green gin – without the hangover. Lap athletically or just bob about pretending it’s exercise. Either way, you’ll have earned dinner at a sunset restaurant to watch the light play across a pearly sea, think about Odysseus, and why wine and a plate of mezes beats a trial-filled odyssey.
The Mani is where British writer Patrick Leigh Fermor lived, and Bruce Chatwin stayed, lured by its past and beauty – feuding dynasties and fortified villages, wild hillsides, idyllic swimming spots. The Fermor house at Kalamitsi is available for rent, but there are plenty of cheaper and charming small hotels around.
IDEAL FOR: Lovers of history and landscape who like to get wet.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Breaking the journey at Nafplio on the other side. Swimming spots plus a romantic small city to wander. Fenella Souter
Tip-toeing through the tulips in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Amsterdam’s tulip season runs from late March to mid-May.
WHY: Amsterdam has been linked with tulips since the early 17th century, when the famous bulbs commanded such high prices, the word “tulipmania” was coined.
THE EXPERIENCE: During tulip season, from late March to mid-May each year, the Netherlands’ capital, Amsterdam, goes tulip-crazy. Stroll along the Bloemenmarkt, the famous floating flower market, for vibrant displays of these beautiful blooms on houseboats lining the Singel canal. Even the grand hotel, De l’Europe Amsterdam, fills one of its restaurants, Trattoria Graziella, with the finest floral art from whimsical designers, The Wunderkammer, for a special week of “dining between flowers”. For full immersion, be sure to book a tour to Keukenhof, one of Europe’s most celebrated gardens, situated south of Haarlem, the heart of the country’s tulip industry. The 32-hectare gardens are landscaped with intricately designed floral displays of colours and shapes that rival the art of the Rijksmuseum in opulence. (They are also landscaped with thousands of visitors, so avoid weekends if possible.)
IDEAL FOR: Gardening fiends, lovers of beauty – and bees.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Head to Japan for the famous springtime cherry-blossom season, and marvel at the clouds of pink and white blossom from Tokyo to Kyoto. Jill Dupleix
Drinking beer in Antwerp, Belgium
De Koninck brewery.
WHY? Belgium is littered with the most glorious craft beers, having spent the past few centuries developing vastly different styles, from red cherry krieks to citrussy, effervescent gueuzes.
THE EXPERIENCE: If you’re serious about expanding your glossary from schooner and pot to vasje and bolleke, then you need to visit Antwerp, the art nouveau Belgian city of tall-steepled cathedrals, where the streets are lined with beer gardens and outdoor cafes. The legendary De Koninck, the city’s own brewer, offers an entertaining and informative brewery tour that starts and ends with a freshly pulled ale. De Koninck (owned by Duvel) has built a gastrodome around its brewery, filling it with bars, smokehouses, bakers and artisanal food producers.
At one point the tour, which brings alive the history and process of brewing through videos and interactive devices, has you slide into the front seat of a vintage truck for a simulated drive around the streets of Antwerp delivering beer (hold on tight, the seat actually throws you around a bit). By the end, you’ve graduated sufficiently in the subject to be trusted to pour your own beer from the tap. Cheers!
IDEAL FOR: Beer drinkers, of course.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Discover what makes Britain great – the gin and tonic – with the Bombay Sapphire Distillery tour, in Laverstock Mill, Hampshire, UK. Terry Durack
Making like a local in Istanbul, Turkey
Balat, a neighbourhood settled by Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition.Credit: Getty Images
WHY: There’s a vibrant village life beyond the big-city spectacle.
THE EXPERIENCE: As the capital of three successive empires, Turkey’s biggest city was built to awe visitors and even today its grand mosques and its Ottoman-era palaces have an imposing presence. There are only so many monuments a visitor can take, however, so when you need a break, head to the Golden Horn and the adjoining neighbourhoods of Fener and Balat. They may have different histories – Fener was once home to the city’s Greek population, while Balat was settled by Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition – but they share an appealingly cosy village vibe as well as a multicultural history. Walls are adorned with colourful murals and in the local shops, head-scarved grandmothers rub shoulders with cool young folk and Orthodox priests. Wander the tangled alleyways to discover old-school wooden houses with brightly painted facades, cafes where glasses of cherry juice are served on tables covered with crocheted cloths, and plenty of cats lounging in the sun.
IDEAL FOR: Cat-lovers and village people.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Guadalajara, Mexico’s cultural capital. The Colonia Americana neighbourhood is where art deco mansions meet dive bars and warehouse parties. Ute Junker
Following the Poet in County Clare, West Ireland
Hills near Ballyvaughan. Credit: Alamy
WHY: Soul-nourishing poetry goes with Ireland like mythology, traditional music, dramatic vistas and enchanting villages.
THE EXPERIENCE: David Whyte is one of the most elegant and insightful living poets of the English-speaking world and his week-long walking excursion in County Clare is the gift of a lifetime. You’ll be based in the village of Ballyvaughan on the southern shores of Galway Bay, and be treated each day to sublime verse from David, beautiful music (ballads through to jig and reel), walks through emerald valleys and forests, along the wild shores of the Atlantic or across the Burren – the famed region of natural wonders emerging from a bed of limestone that’s more than 300 million years old.
Meet some of Whyte’s friends, great storytellers, musicians or both, all deeply connected to the landscape and its rich Celtic traditions. Galway is just to the north, the Cliffs of Moher to the south, and to the west, the Aran Islands – last stop before America – with their medieval forts, ruins and ancient stone walls. (This is where much of the Oscar-nominated film The Banshees of Inisherin was filmed.)
IDEAL FOR: Lovers of poetry, walking and traditional Irish music.
LIKE THIS? TRY: A walking tour of the English Lake District, also hosted by David Whyte. David Leser
Renting a house in the Brecon Beacons, Wales
Brecon Beacons National Park. Credit: Getty Images
WHY: This is a stunning landscape of mountain streams, waterfalls, vast vistas of upland moors and ancient market towns nestled in river valleys.
THE EXPERIENCE: The natural beauty of the Brecon Beacons National Park is best enjoyed in summer and at leisure. Gather friends and family and rent a house together on the River Usk in South Wales. On days when the fickle gods of the Welsh summer smile on you, spend mornings wild-swimming in the cold, clear water of the Usk and afternoons exploring the waterfalls of the Black Mountains and Central Beacons, including the stunning falls at Henrhyd and Ystradfellte. For those up for more physical challenges, there are also remote upland moors to explore as well as more extreme activities – William and Catherine, the Prince and Princess of Wales, were seen abseiling down a cliff in the area. On inclement days, explore the ancient market towns of the valleys, including Crickhowell, Abergavenny and Hay on Wye, home of a world-renowned annual literary festival.
IDEAL FOR: People who love hiking through nature (but enjoy a cream tea when it’s raining).
LIKE THIS? TRY: Snowdonia, with miles of walking trails through the rugged peaks and valleys surrounding the highest mountain in Wales. Helen Goh
Going wild in nature, Iceland
The hot spring in Reykjafjordur, Arnarfjordur. Credit: Promote Iceland
WHY: Staggering, alien landscapes offer high scope for adventure. In the cooler months, eerie northern lights add to the otherworldly feeling.
THE EXPERIENCE: Iceland is indented with fjords, glistening with glaciers, thundering with waterfalls and pockmarked by lava fields and bubbling mud – a top destination for anyone wanting to be awed by nature’s raw power. You can tunnel into glaciers, descend into lava tubes and craters, whitewater-raft down frigid rivers, wallow in hot springs and puffin-watch on cliffs. Almost every town has a dramatic coastal setting, yet world-class facilities and cosy Nordic chic. If you have time, tackle the 1322-kilometre Route 1, which circumnavigates the island.
Among several wilderness lodges is lava-girt, eco-conscious ION Adventure Hotel, close to Thingvellir National Park, a sleek, contemporary contrast to the ancient, gnarly landscape beyond the plate-glass windows, and offering a muscle-soothing spa and sauna if you’ve overdone the hiking.
IDEAL FOR: Bear Grylls wannabes and adrenaline addicts.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Finnish Lapland, which provides a similar feel of remoteness and adventure amid very different landscapes. You can cross-country ski, snowshoe, husky-sledge and venture into the frozen forest by snowmobile. Brian Johnston
Taking a passeggiata in Ferrara, Italy
Ferrara’s Basilica Cattedrale di San Giorgio.Credit: Alamy
WHY: Its city centre, rich with palazzi and piazzas, is perfect for a gentle stroll – or passeggiata, as the Italians put it.
THE EXPERIENCE: Situated between big pullers Florence and Venice, it can be easy to miss Ferrara (or perhaps dismiss it as a typo, vroom-vroom) but this small, UNESCO World Heritage-listed city in the Po Valley rewards the curious visitor. Set inside nine kilometres of restored 16th-century defensive walls, which you can skirt on foot or bicycle, Ferrara is a university town with a leisurely vibe. Amid a jumble of medieval- and Renaissance-era buildings, its centrepiece is an enormous, four-towered castle with moat and dungeons.
The crown of the once ruling Este clan, the red-bricked Castello Estense overlooks other notable edifices including the enormous Basilica Cattedrale di San Giorgio and the striking Palazzo dei Diamanti (now an art gallery), the facade of which is made up of thousands of diamond-shaped marble blocks. For all that, Ferrara’s best feature is arguably the cobbled, car-and-crowd-free maze of streets in its historic centre, lined with churches, cloisters, cafes, restaurants and bookshops, as well as the homes of the lucky locals.
IDEAL FOR: Architecture and history buffs looking for time to smell the coffee.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Padua, another northern Italian university town off the tourist trail, which complements its heritage and artistic attractions with a centre made for walking. Paul Connolly
Exploring the unexpected in Oxford, England
Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum.Credit: Alamy
WHY? Famous as a seat of learning, Oxford is also home to a most surprising museum.
THE EXPERIENCE: The words “Oxford” and “adventure” don’t immediately go together but in the annals of anthropology, the Pitt Rivers Museum (pictured) is a special place, a vestige of a long-gone era of swashbuckling exploration. Founded in 1884, the stately, colonnaded institution is named after Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, a mutton-chopped British Army officer who, over the course of a 32-year military career, collected some 22,000 artefacts. The museum now houses 500,000 items, including voodoo dolls and antique Algerian surgical instruments. There are Peruvian blowpipes, Ethiopian priest crowns, and an ancient pair of mole’s feet which, when carried in one’s pocket, was thought to cure toothache. The museum is a fitting entrée to Oxford, a small, compact city most famous, of course, for its university, which was established in the 12th century. A wander around the university’s many colleges is well worth it, but you could spend days simply soaking up the streetscape, or riding a bicycle along the Thames, past the riverboats and rowing sculls.
IDEAL FOR: Those with a penchant for history and learning.
LIKE THIS? TRY: London’s British Library: it has almost 200 million items, including a second-century Homeric papyrus and the handwritten lyrics of the Beatles’ song Strawberry Fields Forever. Tim Elliott
Savouring fine dining, Spain
Arzak, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in the Basque Country.Credit: Alamy
WHY: The world leader in haute cuisine is not where you think.
THE EXPERIENCE: Here’s a bold statement: Spain is the world’s greatest destination for high-end dining. Better than France. Even Japan. If you love the experience, if you hunger for cuisine that represents the ultimate meeting of art and science, if you live for stratospheric restaurant experiences that draw as much upon imagination and ethereal brilliance as they do culture and history, then you should be travelling to Spain.
Consider the restaurants. In Catalonia: El Celler de Can Roca, legendary showcase for the Roca brothers’ genius; Disfrutar, rated third in the world by 50 Best; Cocina Hermanos Torres, impossibly inventive. In the Basque Country, the trinity of Arzak, Akelarre and Martín Berasategui, the three-Michelin-starred masters. Then there’s Mugaritz, a concept of such daring and creativity that it transcends the restaurant experience. And Asador Etxebarri, the pinnacle of food at its most elemental, just meat and fire and supreme skill.
As well, these restaurants are accessible, unlike, say, Japan, where many of the finest experiences remain off-limits to those without contacts.
IDEAL FOR: The food-obsessed with money to burn.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Japan, of course – Tokyo alone offers a mind-boggling array of options. Ben Groundwater
Looking for Leonard on Hydra, Greece
The island of Hydra still has no cars – only donkeys and mules.Credit: Getty Images
WHY: The famous island continues to satisfy the senses, particularly for insatiable Leonard Cohen fans.
THE EXPERIENCE: So much has been written about Hydra, the most renowned of Greece’s Saronic islands. This is where, in 1960, at the age of 25, the Canadian poet Leonard Cohen came to live and pen his first songs. Cohen soon fell under the spell of Australia’s golden writing duo George Johnston and Charmian Clift, as well as the bohemian joys of Greek island living. Hydra still has no cars – only donkeys and mules; it is blessed with a crescent-shaped harbour, a medley of cobbled streets climbing into the rocky hills, tavernas spilling out onto a port rich in maritime history, and an aquamarine shoreline that still washes the eyes clean. This is where Athenians regularly promenade on weekends and locals take their morning coffee at cafes like Cohen’s favourite, Katsikas (now Rolo), or dine in any one of scores of restaurants. Cohen’s house is tucked away in a quiet street above the port and there are numerous quality hotels and Airbnb properties to choose from.
IDEAL FOR: Leonard Cohen pilgrims, island holidayers.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Head north to Aegina, a quaint, less frequented version of Hydra. David Leser
Following a lesser-known heritage trail, Albania
The ancient Greek theatre in Butrint National Park, Albania.Credit: Getty Images
WHY: This relatively unknown destination offers surprising UNESCO-listed wonders.
THE EXPERIENCE: Imagine the spread of historical and cultural diversity there must have been in a city inhabited from prehistoric times, developed as a trading hub by the Greeks, later conquered and expanded by the Romans, before being controlled by the Byzantines, a brief period under Venetian rule and eventually the Ottomans’. The city is Butrint, now a ruin, though one that has been well-preserved. The setting is not Greece, Italy, Croatia nor any of the Mediterranean countries you might expect for such riches, but Albania, where many remnants of the world’s great civilisations are laid out on a fingertip of land in the far south of the country, an arrow’s shot from the Greek border.
There’s an ancient Greek theatre, built in the third century BC; a Roman forum that existed in the time of Emperor Augustus; a circular baptistry, its floor covered in intricate mosaics, built by the Romans and repurposed by the Byzantines. That Butrint lies in modern-day Albania is a blessing: it’s a reason to discover this forgotten country, so long closed off from the wider world; while its relative obscurity keeps it, for now at least, free of the madding crowds.
IDEAL FOR: History buffs seeking new frontiers.
LIKE THIS? TRY: Prepared to rough it for Roman history? There are extensive ruins in the ancient city of Heliopolis – now Baalbek – in Lebanon. Ben Groundwater
In association with Traveller. Thank you to Julietta Jameson, Jane Reddy and Anthony Dennis from team Traveller for their help on this issue.
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