Greetings from Rome!
In this blog update, I’ll be discussing my numerous visits to the Porta Portese Flea Market. This flea market occurs every Sunday morning, rain or shine including holidays (even Easter!), just south of Rome’s famous Trastevere neighborhood. To enter the market from the north, I begin at Porta Portese, a seventeenth-century gate in the Janiculum Walls near the banks of the Tiber and the Ponte Sublicio bridge. Entering from this point, you’re met initially by hundreds of clothing vendors –– a combination of thrift tables of cheap used clothing and shoes, as well as stalls for new discounted merchandise, especially counterfeit designer gear. Digging through the long tables of used clothing, separated by price (often €1, €3, €5, or €10 per piece), is a meticulous and sometimes dirty process, but can produce some unique items for cheap! Vendors will have shouting competitions with one another to lure shoppers towards their stall, but are always friendly and fair when you’re interested in buying.
Walking further south down the Via Portuense, things get more diverse. Gradually you’ll begin to encounter high-end vintage clothing vendors, book sellers, food trucks, artisans, hardware and tool vendors, antiques dealers, CD and vinyl stalls, and most other wares one can imagine. Don’t be duped by the vendors selling cheap toys or cell phone accessories scattered throughout.
Eventually, the market branches out onto the Via Ippolito Nievo. One can either turn right or continue down the Via Portuense. This is where the sheer enormity of this market becomes evident. Down the Via Ippolito Nievo is where most of the antiques dealers set up shop. This is a great area to buy art, furniture, home decor, watches and jewelry, cameras, model trains, car parts, kitchen wares, military memorabilia, retro magazines and movie posters, and one-of-a-kind souvenirs. Almost nothing is priced, so respectful haggling (ideally in Italian) is a must!
This section of the market ends when Via Ippolito Nievo hits Viale di Trastevere, while the Via Portuense section continues down to the Via degli Stradivari. The market begins very early, allegedly as soon as the sun is up, though I’ve never arrived earlier than 8:30. Things get super crowded by 9:00 or 10:00, so arrive early! If you’d like to see everything and spend some time shopping around, expect to spend three hours or more here.
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