Daily life in Garbatella

Shopping and markets

The Garbatella market is in via Francesco Passino: food stalls on weekdays and, every Saturday and Sunday, the Farmers' Market where Lazio farms sell vegetables, oil, wine, cheese, meat, eggs and honey directly (Turismo Roma). Local shops — bakeries, grocers, butchers, greengrocers — are on via Guglielmo Massaia, via Passino and around piazza Sauli; medium-sized supermarkets are on via Ostiense, the Circonvallazione Ostiense and towards via delle Sette Chiese. In Ostiense there is also a large food emporium in the former Air Terminal station.

Services, health, schools, library

The district has the CTO Andrea Alesini hospital in via San Nemesio, with an orthopaedic emergency department; Sant'Eugenio in EUR and Nuovo Regina Margherita in Trastevere are the nearest for other emergencies. Pharmacies are on via Massaia, via Passino, via Ostiense and at the Circonvallazione. State nursery, primary and secondary schools are inside the lots, built together with the houses in the 1920s and 1930s, and there are licei in Ostiense; the Roma Tre campus, with the Palladium theatre in piazza Bartolomeo Romano, is the district's university hub.

The Moby Dick library of the Biblioteche di Roma network is in via Edgardo Ferrati, with a study room, a children's section and a cultural programme.

Green space and leisure

Green space is spread out: the garden courtyards of the lots, open but for residents' use, the Rosa Raimondi Garibaldi park (the Garbatella park, Municipio VIII) with playgrounds and dog areas, the gardens of piazza Damiano Sauli and the Commodilla park towards the catacombs. For running people go to the Caffarella park and the Appia Antica, beyond the Colombo, or along the Tiber in Ostiense.

In the evening the district stays quiet: historic Roman trattorie in the lots and on via Passino, pizzerie, a few bars and wine bars around piazza Sauli, the Palladium theatre with the Roma Tre season. Nightlife is in Ostiense, between via Libetta, via del Porto Fluviale and via Ostiense, with clubs, venues and street art, ten minutes' walk away but out of earshot of those sleeping.