Esquilino is Rome's most emphatically multicultural neighbourhood, built up in the late nineteenth century as the city expanded around the new Termini railway station. Its streets are layered with history in both directions: the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore rises from one of the seven hills of ancient Rome, while Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II below it hosts the largest outdoor market in the city, where Chinese, Bangladeshi, African, and South American stalls trade alongside the Roman greengrocers.
The neighbourhood rewards curious walkers. Via Principe Amedeo and the surrounding blocks contain Chinese grocery stores, Ethiopian restaurants, South Asian spice shops, and Egyptian bakeries — a different Rome from the one on the postcards. The Piazza Vittorio market itself runs every morning except Sunday, selling produce, clothing, and household goods at prices that reflect the fact that it serves the people who actually live here. The Palazzo Brancaccio and its gardens are hidden away at the neighbourhood's southern edge, a reminder of the patrician Rome that preceded the quarter's industrial-era development.