ROM.NBHD· District
San Lorenzo
Rome Neighbourhood Guide
Student, unpretentious, authentic
Rome's university district — student bars, cheap and excellent trattorias, and a wall-to-wall street art scene around La Sapienza. Where you eat like a Roman student and pay almost nothing for it.
San Lorenzo runs on the economics of people with no money and unlimited time. It sits between Termini and the Sapienza campus, and what that produces is the cheapest good pizza in Rome, bars that stay open because nobody has anywhere to be at eight tomorrow, and more political murals per square metre than anywhere else in the city.
The nineteenth of July
Every Roman knows one fact about San Lorenzo. On 19 July 1943, Allied bombers hit it, aiming for the railyards, and killed around three thousand people in a couple of hours. Pope Pius XII came out of the Vatican for the first time in the war and stood in the wreckage with his cassock covered in blood, which is why there's a statue of him outside the basilica.
It was the only district of Rome bombed in the Second World War, and it permanently set the politics of the place. This is the most reliably left-wing quarter in the city and it puts that on its walls, at length, in paint.
The rest of the time it's a grid of low 1880s workers' housing, quiet by day, full of students by night. The Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura at the eastern edge is one of the seven pilgrimage churches, rebuilt after that same raid, and essentially ignored by visitors.
Formula Uno
Pizzeria Formula Uno is the reason to make the trip. It's been going since 1959, it's loud as a canteen, and the fried starters land on the table before you've properly sat down: supplì, fried courgette flowers, salt cod. Then thin, blistered Roman pizza, the kind that shatters rather than folds.
A pizza runs about €7. Prices have barely shifted in a decade, which in central Rome is close to a miracle. No reservations, and there's usually a queue, but it moves fast because the turnover is brutal and nobody lingers.
Beyond that the neighbourhood is a good place to eat cheaply and without ceremony. Student-priced trattorie, late pizza al taglio, and bars that'll feed you if you're drinking.
Getting there, and staying elsewhere
Fifteen minutes' walk east of Termini, over the tracks, or trams 3 and 19. There is no metro station, which is one of the reasons it stayed cheap.
As somewhere to sleep it doesn't really work for a normal trip — the accommodation is aimed at students, and the walk back from Termini isn't a pleasant one. Treat it as an evening: walk out from Termini, eat at Formula Uno, have a drink on Via dei Volsci afterwards, and go back. For a bed, Monti is fifteen minutes west and a different proposition entirely, and Esquilino sits between the two if the station matters more than the surroundings.
San Lorenzo: common questions
01What is San Lorenzo known for?
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Student nightlife, cheap Roman pizza — Pizzeria Formula Uno above all — political street art, and the Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura. It was also the only district of Rome bombed in the Second World War, in July 1943.
02Is San Lorenzo safe at night?
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Broadly yes, and it's busy with students. It looks rougher than it is. The streets nearer the railway and the Verano cemetery are quiet and badly lit, so use the usual judgement there.
03How do I get to San Lorenzo?
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Fifteen minutes' walk east from Termini, or trams 3 and 19. No metro station in the district.
Day Trips from Rome
Tivoli · Ostia Antica · Castelli Romani · Orvieto
Pick up at Fiumicino or Ciampino — free cancellation on most cars
