So we organized a tour guide to visit the Testaccio area, as we wanted in particular to visit MOunt Testaccio, and entry is more by luck if someone turns up to open the gate, or you have a guide who organizes someone to be there. The mountain, and l feel that is a stretch for this hill is made completely of broken pots from centuries past, pots from Syria, Turkey, France, Africa, Spain conataining oil, grain, wine. The pots once empties where carted to this area and broken and then layed in layers, which is amazing to see a x section. The pots thanks to our guide who was an archeologist where identified by their colour or design of handle or shape. On the top of this hill which might be 100 metres they have cut a shaft and from photos you can truely see the layering effect, along with examples along the track you walk up. We then had a lunch in one of the many restaurants that backs into the base of the hill, and so the walls are of broken pots. The old meat market has become a sort of art area with studios and gallery spaces, though maybe not yet as successful as it could be. And next to that is the new market which sells everything, and is well worth going too, and tasting the local produce and wines.
Near by is an incredible cemetery , Cimitero Acattolica ( Protestant Cemetery) In this place Percey Shelley, John Keats are buried along with many other famous artists and writers. In fact you needed to be artistic to get in in the end. There is also a Russian section, it was established in 1716, when the Pope recognised that many inhabitants of Rome where not catholic. Near by is the Pyramid of Cestius built in 30 BC as a tomb, and looks odd .
And of course we did a trip to the Pantheon, because you just have to see one of the most incredible man made structures, and while there pop around the corner to see a few Caravaggios.
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