Sept 21st, Rome Tiber Hill of Pots

9/21     Saturday

            We plan an excursion to an interesting modern art complex, in a neighborhood that’s off the beaten tourist track. It’s called MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, a reuse of a gigantic 19^th Century slaughterhouse, or abattoir, which sounds so much nicer.

            On our way, we happen upon a weird landmark, a sudden hill made entirely of broken amphorae, dating from as far back as 2AD. Rome was one of the largest populations in the world at the time, and had a great demand for olive oil, which was shipped in these non-reusable clay jugs. To address the problem of piles of discarded amphorae, they organized a place where the jugs were collected, broken down and layered efficiently into what grew into a great big hill. Now it’s the cornerstone of a funky, arty neighborhood called Testaccio, wherein resides the aforementioned slaughter…abattoir.

            We arrive at the complex, and it’s closed! Its hours are from 4pm to 10pm, which tells you something about the type of neighborhood we’re in. Actually, the entire perimeter of Mount Testaccio is full of nightclubs and bars and restaurants dug into the clay shard hillsides. It’s just not an afternoon kind of place. This is too bad, because all the reviews of MACRO sound like exactly the sort of place we really enjoy. Look it up, it’s very interesting stuff.

1 Video Included

 Rome Tiber Hill of Pots