Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
kinds of housewares, wines, flowers, and food that Italians buy, and you can get
some of the best deals in town here. You'll find no rainbow-colored pasta in pretty
packages here.
Down the street from the market you'll pass by old-fashioned candy shops and
seamstresses who barely look up from their needles as you pass by. You'll reach the
Piazza Santa Maria della Liberatrice, which is a giant square with a children's park
on one end and a line of park benches filled with elders on the other.
Grandmothers push their grandchildren on swings in the morning and new
moms stroll their babies in elaborate buggies after lunch. In the late afternoons in
the summer, long lines form at the ice-cream shops that border the park and later
in the evenings, local residents gather at the
enoteche
and fill the local
trattorie
out-
door tables. You cannot find a parking spot here for Sunday lunch in the winter
and, anyway, you'd better have made a reservation since most of the restaurants
are filled with long tables of multi-generational families.
This is a classic Roman neighborhood that will always make you feel welcome,
and the locals will never treat you like a tourist. If you make it to Testaccio, they'll
assume you know why you came and they will treat you as one of their own.
SHOPPING
With so much to see, who has time to shop? If you do, here are some of the best
choices. Note that many stores aren't open Sunday and Monday morning and
adhere to the siesta, closing between 1 and 4pm, with the exception of those
around the Spanish Steps.
ANTIQUES STORES
More than 40 antiques shops line the
Via dei Coronari,
selling everything from
large pieces of furniture to such small treasures as crested silverware and divine
candelabras.
BOOKSTORES
Many of the English-language bookstores in Rome have closed or downsized in
recent years, as Italian megastores expand their inventory to include English
books.
Feltrinelli
(Largo Torre Argentina, 11, and several locations throughout
the city;
%
06-68663001; www.feltrinelli.it)
is an American-style mega-book-
store complete with coffee bar. They have a large selection of music, books in
English, and children's selections, in addition to stationery and calendars.
CLOTHING MARKETS
Even people who don't need to look for bargains shop at the sprawling
San
Giovanni Clothing Market
(Via Sannio).
The clothing here is all new and often
you're better off not knowing where it came from, but the prices are exceptional.
You can get very good quality leather shoes, belts, and purses at a fraction of the
price you'd pay in stores.
Stalls are piled high with jeans, shirts, linens, and fabrics, but you'll have to
hunt through the merchandise to find your size.
One warning:
Virtually no one
here speaks English, and the international size charts are a mystery. There are no
changing facilities and no returns on purchases.
