Non-tourist Rome: a guide from the underground

Rome is much more than only the Colosseum and the Vatican!

Concerts

• Santa libbirata – la Carrettiera (between Tropignattara e Furio Camillo)
• Pianeta Sonoro (Pigneto)
• Zazie nel metrò (Pigneto)
• Monk
• Casa della Pace (Testaccio)
• Etoile 23
• Kif Kif
• Whishlist
• Zalib (Trastevere, where you can go to study, chill or hear concerts)

Centri sociali / Squats

• “Centro sociale” means squat, generally illegally occupied empty place where there are social
  discussions, concerts, festivals, cultural initiatives. It’s the underground of the city!
• Forte Prenestino: an old fort of the 1 world war, is one of the biggest squat of Europe. They
  organize in June a great festival of comics called “Crack!” (http://crack.forteprenestino.net/). Every
  3 sunday of the month, in the morning there is a very relaxing self-produced food market called
  “Terra-Terra”. Have a look on the website for informations! www.forteprenestino.net
• La Torre: an old country-house in a very green park with olive plants in front, it doesn’t seem to be
  in Rome! Every 1 Sunday of the month there is the Terra-Terra market. http://csalatorre.net/
• Strike: Little squat next to Tiburtina Station. They used to have a great restaurant on thursday
  evening. Not sure they still have it
• Spartaco: www.spartaco.it pretty far away
• Acrobax , Close to Basilica di San Paolo. Ex place where gods used to run. They organise events
  once in a while https://acrobax.org/
• SNIA, close to Pigneto Area

Underground Art

MAAM – Museo dell’altro e dell’altrove (Museum of the Other and of the Elsewhere). This was a
former salami factory occupied by homeless immigrants and now hosts one of Rome’s most
important contemporary art spaces, with installations and paintings by more that 300 artists from
around the world. Open on Saturday, FREE entrance but a donation is welcome. Via Prenestina,
913.

Libraries

All around Rome there are public libraries where you can study or borrow books, movies and
music for free. Open the MAP to discover where they are or search here a specific book on there
database.
I’ve also just discovered a very alternative and indipendent library in the zone of Centocelle, called
BAM (Biblioteca abusiva Metropolitana, which is something like: Metropolitan Unlawful Library).
Here you can navigate on internet, play chess, or borrow a book for free. The place is definitely
unconventional, also a bit dusty and with a lovely cat around.  The address is:
Via dei castani, 42

 

Bikes: Popular Bike-kitchen / Critical Mass

As one of the main problems of Rome is the traffic, there is a movement of bikers who
try to change things. You can get in touch with them in the Bike-kitchen or in the
Critical mass.
A bike-kitchen (or Ciclofficina popolare in italian) it’s a place where you can repair
or build up for free your own bike.

• The Critical Mass is born in San Francisco in the 80′, it’s the idea to bike all together and at a 
  certain point there will be so many bikers (mass) that they will attract others and others as the
  “critical mass” of the stars!
  They meet every last friday of the month.. it’s very fun, so find a bike and come!
  On the last week-end on May there is the biggest Critical Mass ever called Ciemmona 
  (www.ciemmona.org) and there will be people coming from all Europe!!

FESTIVALS

• Festival of comics “Crack!” in the Forte Prenestino in May/june. Via Lorenzo Delpino ♥
• Carnival of Poggio Mirteto, a historical anti-catholic carnival in a little city next to Rome
• Wine Festival “Enotica” – Forte Prenestino, around June
• Errichetta Festival – Balkan music festival organized by the wonderful Errichetta Underground –
  Around September
• Ciemmona – 3 days biking around the city all together and ending up in squats and to the sea – last
  weekend of May

CINEMA

Cine Detour , Via Urbana, 107

French Cinema. Inside the French istitute, they have a super good selection. In French with italian subtitles. 5 euros. Largo Toniolo, 22

Cinema delle Provincie

Goethe Institut This is the german Institut in Rome.They often do projections of very nice movies (in german with english or italian subtitles), and generally for free.

MULTI-ETHNIC FOOD