Late to the Market - Trawling Porta Portese

We were late getting up Sunday morning so we only got to the market at about 11. Recommended visiting hours for the flea market was before 9am, which was just about right... because by the time we got there, I was bumping uglies with Sunday-morning Romans and excusing myself in broken Italian as I worked my way past the many bric-a-brac stalls, mostly laid out on huge tablecloths or arranged on some rickety table beneath a beach umbrella.



Porta Portese is Rome's largest and most famous flea market (yet it's been only 12 hours since I heard of it), the equivalent on London's Portobello Road. It's located off the main road running directly from Ponte Girabaldi and up the Trastevere neighborhood, on Via Ippolito Neivo. Trastevere, for those of you saturated by historic Rome, is quintessentially residential--it's supposed to be antithetical to tourist Rome, where the 'real' Romans stay. In fact, the residents of Trastevere have been declaring their 'Romanness' for a long time, claiming to be direct descendents of those Roman sailors who installed the awnings/sunshades of the Colosseum. And walking up the long Viale di Trastevere boulevard towards the market, the residential label seems fair enough. No kitsch tourist shops or grand museums; flanking the boulevard were plain apartment blocks with small shops opening onto the street--bakeries, supermercatos, etc. Food and vegetables are even supposed to be cheaper this side of the Tiber...

Now, back to market again. It started to pour after a while and umbrella-holding hurts the bargain-hunting mood. I ended up with only 1 purchase--a secondhand Cokin 67mm filter ring adapter for 4 euros. I tried bargaining--tre euros, signore!--but the smiling stallkeeper thought I merely misunderstood him. He held up four fingers--quattro euros!

On the whole, the market isn't necessarily your bargain hub. There's a hint that these stallkeepers have seen their fair share of tourists and can gauge your spending power pretty accurately. All in all, going to market on a Sunday is a good social experience, if you're not the Churchgoing sort, and definitely good eye candy! I got that the shot of the antique drawing supplies which made me want to sketch so badly, and the cacti below (we almost bought one if it wasn't for the crowds) is from my friend, Stephanie G., who is also blogging about our Roman escapade at Snailing Rome.