The Price is Right: What's More Expensive?

Q. What costs more in Rome? 

              A small box of wooden matches?  Or a bottle of very drinkable white wine from the southern Tuscan town of Pitigliano? 

A. They cost the same: 2.5 Euros, or about $3.00

Truck Shopping in Rome

The 'shop'  name is "Melandra...Moving Shop." The "ape" or "bee" is a
3-wheel commercial vehicle, based on the Vespa scooter and produced,
as is the Vespa ("wasp"), by Piaggio.  I once said we mainly saw them in
the countryside, but maybe not!

The joys of shopping in Rome, for us, are mainly the visuals.  We love looking at the multitude of ways in which petty capitalism operates in this city of 3 million people. A method new to us this year was the mobile clothes store.  Yes, we have pop-ups in the U.S., but the Italians as usual, take it one step further.



We had seen vendors selling batteries (see photo towards the end of this post), glasses, flowers, fruits and vegetables out of trucks.  But a mini clothing store? That was new.


The "ape" trucks  above and below were parked in and close by the large Piazza Mazzini near our apartment this Spring, and came around periodically to sell their wares - and the Italians were buying.

Quite a combination of Italian and English words here, plus a take off : "Fruit of the Loom" (right), then "Fruit on the Road" (left). We didn't check  to see if the goods were authentic or knock-offs, but we can guess.

Below, not a shopping truck per se, but likely a delivery truck for a Sicilian (mostly) take-out restaurant in Prati (near where we lived).  Unfortunately, we never got there, but the arancini look amazing! (To say "arancini" are stuffed rice balls doesn't do them justice.)

The paintings are of Orlando and Rinaldo dueling for Angelica's heart in the classic "Orlando Furioso"
tale.  The story resonates with Sicily and the Sicilian puppet tradition, emphasizing these arancini
are going to be Sicilian to their rice core. The restaurant name is MondoArancina - with an "a" at the end,
 apparently the Sicilian spelling. The truck enlivens an otherwise rather soulless piazza in della Vittoria.

And then there's the use of a Fiat 500 to sell vinegars--again, just down from our apartment.

"Wine without sulfites...Wine and apple vinegar..." etc.
And, apparently, he doubles as a clown at night.

This van houses an Orologeria, a store that sells watch-bands and watch batteries.
A piazza in San Paolo.  Eager customers, including me. 

And, left, not exactly shopping from or out of a truck, but shoe sellers who use their truck to carry all the shoes and the stands and tents they put up to sell - they do this every day of the week - up in the morning, down in the evening.

I thought the arrangement of shoe boxes could have stumped a Rubik's cube expert.

Dianne

Bill has also written about some of Rome's trucks and vans:
https://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2012/02/tiny-trucks-of-rome.html
https://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2011/08/white-vans-of-rome.html

Salario: Rome's Unsung Hot Neighborhood

Right, our apartment building on the Via Simeto side.
Our place is on the 4th floor above the ground
floor--the one with the "cutout" that is our
terrace.   No market when this was taken.

When we arranged to rent a Rome apartment months ago, we thought we were headed for Parioli, a ritzy area of north Rome known for its fancy avenues (Viale dei Parioli and Viale Bruno Buozzi among them), expensive restaurants, and high-end shopping.

But we're not in Parioli--at least we don't think so.   More likely we're in one of Rome's lesser known districts: Salario.  Our 4th floor apartment is on the corner of Via Salaria--one of ancient Rome's consular roads--and Via Simeto, which is two blocks south of Viale Regina Margherita, the main drag with trams that go all over Rome.  We think Parioli "officially" begins on the other side of Via Salaria.

No, we're not in Parioli.  But what we've found--by sheer good fortune--is one of Rome's most
dynamic neighborhoods.   Curiously, we  had lived nearby a few years ago--just to the north of Viale Regina Margherita, in what's known as Trieste.  But we almost never ventured across the Viale. What a mistake!

Our building is of early 20th-century vintage, but
beneath it are catacombs!  We discovered they are open
one day each year - November 23.

It didn't take long to discover the pleasures of our Salario neighborhood.  It's full of small shops. On one side of our streetside apartment door is a barber.  On  the other side, a sartoria (a shop for sewing repairs of all kids). There's a ferramenta (a hardware store) nearby on Via Simeto, as well as the Rome version of a general store, crammed with stuff (and run, as many of them now are, by Chinese). Via Simeto also has a key shop and a butcher shop and an orto-frutta (fruits and vegetables).

Our "Tigre" grocrery, located in what used to be a movie
theatre (note the U-shaped lettering of the theater).  While
a chain, the Tigre has an informal book-exchange in
a room off the entrance.  

There's a nice wine shop just across Via Salaria--but of course you can buy wine almost anywhere, including at the medium-sized chain grocery store that you can see from our living room window (right).  The 4-star Beverly Hills Hotel (no joke!) is across the street.

The high-end shopping is on Via Po, two blocks down: men's clothes shops that drew the attention of a friend who's lived in Rome for years; a shop that sells only olive oil; a salumeria (a cheese/salami/bread store).  As that friend - who's lived in Rome 30 years - said when he met us for dinner nearby, "How did you find this place?"

Hugs at the market

Dianne with her home-made vignarola

Oh, yes.  There's an outdoor market on our side street (and up the next one) every day but Sunday--cheap clothes, kitchen items, and food: shelled peas and fava beans, trimmed artichokes, you name it.  In 5 minutes, we had bought those ingredients for vignarola - all ready to cook up.

Eating out?  There must be a dozen restaurants within a 10-minute walk--maybe more.  On our block alone there are three, all traditional trattorias serving Rome cuisine; we've tried two and they were both worthy, highlighted by a pasta with seafood and truffles.

Kilo, red meat capital of Rome.  Dianne on the prowl.  

Toward Via Po, we discovered Kilo, an enormous corner restaurant with elaborate outdoor seating--all in hip modernist style--serving meat cuts from animals raised around the world - Danish and Uruguayan beef, not to mention Chianina (from Tuscany), Kobe and "American" meats.  It's full of young people, which we like.  A wine bar called "dietro le quinte" also looks promising.  And there are a couple of popular places for the sushi crowd.

Hip outside cushion seating at "dietro le quinte"

After checking out a dozen "bars" for our morning coffee and cornetto, we finally settled on a somewhat upscale place on Via Po--where you can sit down and read the paper without paying extra. Indeed, the trend here in Salario--and Salario could be trend-setting--is toward larger places with ample seating at no extra charge. Dogs get in free.

An entrance to Coppede'

It would be too much to say that Salario is centrally located. It's well to the north of the Centro, with no subway line nearby.  Still, the famed Via Veneto is less than a mile walk, and the Galleria Borghese is at most 10 minutes.  The fantastical neighborhood of Coppede', named after the architect Gino Coppede', who designed its structures in the 1920s, is 5 minutes away.

A tram got us to Prati (near the Vatican) in about 30 minutes for some jazz at Alexanderplatz  the other night, and in the other direction (east), a tram will take you to the university, to the hip young scene at San Lorenzo, and just beyond to Porta Maggiore, with its enormous aqueducts, a short walk from another hip scene in Pigneto.

Life could be worse!

Bill

Could have been and would have been our
regular coffee bar, but they overcharged us--twice--because they
thought the Americans wouldn't be back or wouldn't notice.  Big mistake.
It's on Via Salaria if you don't want to go there.  

Grocery Store Surprises: a Rome SMA

Different kind of cart

Rome grocery stores--the chains that is--are not all that different from American stores. They're smaller yes, but they have a similar mix of departments and items.  Unlike some state-side stores, where legislation prohibits the sale of alcohol, Rome/Italian stores all stock wine--and better quality than that carried by the California stores we know.  Another difference is how metal shopping carts are regulated. In the US, you just grab one and go.  In Italy--at the big stores in Rome, at least--it takes 50 ore more centessimi (Euro cents) to free the cart from the lineup; you get it back when you return the cart.  Most stores also provide smaller, plastic carts with handles and wheels for which no deposit is required (guess which ones we use)..

Underdressed shopper

Despite the similarities, as a tourist one can still be surprised at what one finds inside one of those Rome supermarkets.  On our last visit to the city, we were regular customers at a SMA, tucked in behind the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.


The first surprise was a scantily clad cut-out in one of the aisles. It's safe to say you'll see nothing quite this provocative in the US, where prudishness--or one might say decorum--prevails.

Culture at Checkout

The second surprise was of another sort altogether. Across from the checkout lanes was a series of murals, illustrating the store's neighborhood setting, but nostalgically so, in a era before the automobile.


One of the murals (above right) featured a piazza and courtyard on the backside of San Giovanni in Laterano--a place seen by thousands of Romans from their automobiles every day, but one seldom visited and relatively obscure.

Another mural was more of a mystery.  The scene depicted somewhat resembles the intersection of via Druso and viale delle Terme di Caracalla, perhaps a mile from the store.  The curious "booth" at the center looks like one at that intersection, and the ruins in the background may be the baths.  No matter, we loved the dash of "culture" at the checkout counter!   Bill

Terme di Caracalla?  

A New Bauletto: the Curious Charms of Porta Portese

Intimidating

Porta Portese is best known for its enormous Sunday flea market, and perhaps to motorists for the rather harrowing twist into and through the porta from the Lungotevere.  But it has still another attraction: as the site of the biggest collection of shops devoted to scooters and motorcycles--and bicycles.  You need it, it's there: helmets, gloves, jackets, pants--and yes, bauletti, the lockable storage boxes for helmets and clothes and the like that sit on the back of the machines.  And we needed one.  Ours was old, and the hard rubber pieces that anchored the bauletto to the metal frame above the rear fender were cracked and warped, to the point that we were worried about it falling off.

Our Malaguti at box 40

The entrance to the narrow back alley of shack-like shops at Porta Portese can be intimidating; you feel like the white guy in the ghetto.  Still, we summoned our courage and drove the Malaguti 250 into the center of things, asked a few questions, and in less than two minutes had found the right shop--box 40--and the right bauletto.  Although Porta Portese is known as a discount place, the bauletto is not cheap: Euro 110 [about 150 bucks] with or without installation.

Price includes installation

Installation is important.  The connections are tricky, require parts and tools most people don't have, and more than a little experience at the curiously intricate task.

Crowd gathers

The job took about 20 minutes and, as it turned out, attracted the attention, and the assistance, of other shopkeepers.  It was a slow day.  We fretted that somehow our machine wouldn't accomodate the new bauletto.

But then it was done, and off we went, pleased.

Bill

Bicycles, too

Shopping in Rome: Eyeglasses this time

For non-shoppers, we do get around.  And we must admit to being entranced by "Rosaria's," as the eyeglass store we're touting here is known among friends in Rome.

The personable - and knowledgeable - Rosaria
in her shop [and love those glasses].

Rosaria is Rosaria Riccioli, and her small, beautifully-stocked store in the center of Rome is Mondelliani. 


We were admiring the glasses of a friend, and she told us where she annually gets a new pair, and it turns out, so does everyone else we know.  And friends visiting friends stop by Rosaria's shop for new glasses.  As Rosaria's slogan says: "Personalita' in vista" - "personality in sight."

"Something more than an eyeglass store."

At the shop, your prescription can be "read" off your current glasses, and you can get a new pair in a couple days.  From what we can tell, the prices are competitive with U.S. prices, and the selection fantastic.  Ah, yes, English spoken by all the employees.




Mondelliani is just off Piazza Colonna, which is next to via del Corso, smack dab in the center.  And the shop is open "non-stop" - almost -  10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.  Closed on Monday.  Via dei Bergamaschi, 49. tel. 39.06.67.93.481. info@ mondelliani.it. The bi-lingual Web site is fun too.

The sign across the shop window in the Web site photo says "Something more than an eyeglass store." So it is.


Dianne

Shopping in Rome: Fascism for Sale

The Fuhrer, riding in a staff car.  Or the Fuhrer acknowledging the folk with a friendly wave.  Buy both and you get a free attack dog.  

The era of Hitler and Mussolini is now a lifetime in the past.  But if you miss these guys, you can still purchase figurines--in the heart of Rome--to remind you all the good things they did.  We found a nice supply at a small shop just south of the Palazzo di Montecitorio, which houses the Italian Chamber of Deputies. 

That could be the Duce at center right.  Not sure who the dude with the binoculars is.  Marshall Petain, head of the Vichy government?

Another version of Mussolini--apparently--on the pedestal, though he looks a bit gaunt for the Duce.  But who's the guy on the left?  A representative worker?  And what's the gold stuff in the cart? Could be harvested wheat. The red and blue
flag may offer a hint, though I don't think the answer is Haiti.
Help us out here!

Bill
 
PS:  Marco, a regular reader of the blog, offers assistance:  The guy with the binoculars is likely Italo Balbo--Fascist hero, flyer, and governor of Libya--and the red and blue flag belongs to an Army corps.  Thanks so much, Marco.  Michael W. suggests that "the bloke on the right of the Duce looks like Hermann Goering."  Thanks for your help, Michael. 

Shopping (or not) in Rome - Antica Libreria Romana Closes

All the photos here are for the once-lovely,
now-closed Antica Libreria Romana

RST is not known for shopping, but now and then a store really intrigues us.  And so it was with Antica Libreria Romana on via dei Prefetti in central Rome.

The full name was Antica Libreria Romana dal 1897 (Old Roman Bookstore since 1897).   Well, now it's 2013, and they are gone.  They had undergone some closures and different owners over the years, but 1897 and they can't survive 2013?  It's a pity, to be sure.

This "bookstore" for us was a print store.  They had a great collection of inexpensive prints - great mementos of Rome at prices ranging from Euro 5 - as you can see from the photo.  And not just the fake-o contemporary reprints.

Antica Libreria Romana also had bins of prints and leafing through them was great fun in itself. They specialized in antique books and also have other objects to lust after, focusing on "Liberty" - the 1920s.  The shopkeepers were friendly and not stuffy, and they would bargain. 

It's too bad, IMO, that this is the type of store that goes out of business, while the international big box stores - H and M, Nike, etc., populate via del Corso in ever increasing numbers.

You can add to the closure list also The Lion Bookshop in Rome, an English language bookstore that was an institution since 1947. And then one day in 2011, simply closed.  We know book stores the world over are closing because of internet access, and we're guilty of buying on the internet too.  But we would like to think there is room for some of these independents.

Dianne

Audrey, Shopping in Rome

Yes, that's Audrey Hepburn, maybe at her skinniest, which is saying something, and in era bellbottoms, and sporting the oversize sunglasses that would again be in style in 2012.  Accompanied, we were told, by her grandson.  It's 1972, and they're in Piazza Fiume, in front of the famed and architecturally significant (still extant and newly remodeled - and - the subject of an earlier post) department store, la Rinascente.  We saw the photo for the first time just months ago, when we were in an underground bookstore (accessed by the stairs beyond Audrey).  When we admired the photo, the proprietor insisted on printing us a copy.  (It's a good bookstore, btw, and has Roman ruins within it.)

As RST regulars know, Audrey is iconic in Rome and environs. 

Here (and now), she's selling a purse (E25, about $33)



And here, her image is used to market beauty services in the
upscale Trieste quartiere.  (A permanent is
E60, or about $90).



With the photo in hand, we reenacted the Audrey shopping scene, with Dianne as Audrey and minus the sullen teen. 

                        

Original Fake: Store-window takes on Originality

It's getting harder and harder to be "original."  Andy Warhol made that clear in the early 1960s, when he capitulated to capitalism and advertising in the most obvious way, making art that looked very much like a can of Campbell's Soup.  And, to add to the confusion over originality, much of his work was produced by his assistants, not by Warhol himself.  

At about the same time, architects abandoned the quest for the uniquely original aesthetic, retreating to the postmodern preference for mixing and matching historical forms: a bit of the neoclassical here, the pyramids there, and hey, why not a mansard roof?  It was original, but only if the definition includes reassembling the past in a somewhat different way. 

Popular music has always been evolutionary, the province of covers and copies, but especially so after 1970, with the widespread acceptance of "sampling."

That's all background for a couple of photos we took of Italian store windows, each of a shirt with a phrase on it.  One advised, "Don't Copy/Be Original,"  a curious injunction, given that the shirt was obviously mass produced--that is, copied.  The other questioned the idea of originality even more directly: "Original Fake."  

Bill

intimissimi: Too Much Intimacy

What are these Italian guys doing?  They're doing what I'm doing: hanging out in front of intimissimi while their wives shop for bras, panties, slips and other intimate apparel.    Bill

Testaccio's New Market: RST Weighs In

Tables outside a bar - the only classic Rome bar - in the market

Testaccio's new market opened Monday, July 2, to rave reviews from public officials.  "This is one of the most beautiful markets in Rome," said right-wing Mayor Gianno Alemanno.  And David Bordone, with a title that translates into something like "Assessor of Productive Activity," gave his assessment of the activity, claiming that "we are endowing the city with one of the most beautiful structures in the capitol's system of markets." 

We don't share their enthusiasm for the "beauty" of the market.  We were shocked when, two years ago, we saw the "artist's conception" drawings, posted around the exterior, and we're still schocked: from the outside, Testaccio's new market, designed by architect Marco Rietti, is pretty much a big, flat, brown and white box.  (You can see the artist's conception in RST's earlier post on the new market movement.)

The space between the two boxes is, for now,
almost empty

Or boxes.  There are two of them, a smaller one devoted to a variety of purposes, including administration and computer-based classes, and two restaurants, the "Roadhouse Grill" and a sushi place, and a larger box that houses the 103 commercial spaces.  The boxes are separated by an open, exterior corridor that for now is empty, save for some tables serviced by a bar.  To some extent, the big box effect is softened by small brown tiles that dot upper walls.  The market interior--resembling a chessboard with aisles--is sensible and functional, if not flashy.  More on that later.  But now, some background.

Interior, Magna Grecia market

Rome has over 150 large "public" markets--i.e., not grocery stores and not delicatessens.  Many are housed in large, older buildings, done in a variety of styles, and often dating to the 1930s and 1940s; the markets at Piazza Bologna, Trieste (via Chiana), and San Giovanni (via Magna Grecia) fit this description.  Others, like the markets in Monteverde Nuovo (Piazza San Giovanni di Dio) and in Monteverde Vecchio, are simply collections of green iron shacks.

                                 Many of the older markets have raised concerns about sanitation,

Interior of the Trieste market, during an evening
community meeting on the future of the market

and many are are at least partially empty, under pressure from supermarkets and a younger generation that is less enthusiastic about shopping on a daily basis from individual vendors in a marketplace setting.  For these and perhaps other reasons, the city administration has a long-term plan to replace the old markets with new, modern ones.  This has already happened in the Ponte Milvio area, in Trionfale, in lower San Giovanni, and now in Testaccio, and there are plans afoot to replace the Trieste (the quarter in Rome, not the city) market with a complex that includes a new market, dedicated parking, and apartments. 

Although the new markets are, in a sense, "public" markets, they have not been built with public funds.  The markets at Triofale, Ponte Milvio, and Testaccio have all been
built with private money, in exchange for ownership of the complexes.  That, at least, is what the newspapers say, and it more than implies that the markets are privately owned and operated--with consequences, we might add, as yet unforseen.  The same could be said of the largest market of them all--the enormous Eataly complex in Ostiense. 

Abandoned biscotti in the old Testaccio market

The old Testaccio market was a combination of the two kinds noted above: a collection of metal shacks, old enough that large trees had in some cases grown around and through the metal, but contained within a building, probably dating to the 1940s.  When we visited the old market (the day after the new one opened), it was, of course, abandoned. 

A tree inside the old market

We looked for, but did not find, any sign that the merchants would have preferred to remain in their old quarters--for us, an indication that most vendors welcomed the move.  On our way out, we were stopped by a woman who had come to the old market only to find it closed, and did not know where the new one was. 

Residents of via Mannuzio register their concerns
about stands on their street

One group has been vocal in its concerns.  The residents of via Aldo Manuzio, which borders the new market on the northeast, fear that "bancarelle" (stands) will appear on their street, creating noise, dirt and refuse beneath their windows.  In the Roman tradition, they've hung banners from their windows and across the gate that accesses a courtyard within.  Some residents who enjoyed easy access to the old market will doubtless be irritated at having to walk about 4 blocks to the new one.  Indeed, we wonder if the new market, bordered on one side by Monte Testaccio and its bars and clubs, and on another by the art gallery, Macro Testaccio, is properly situated to draw and serve the customers it will need to flourish.

Swordfish for sale

These issues aside, including the big-box look of the exterior, the market would seem to be positioned for success.  On its second day of operation, when we visited, about two-thirds of the spaces were occupied, and there was considerable foot traffic.




The market's administrators have grouped the merchants, with fruit and vegetable vendors occupying one area, fish and meat vendors another, and sellers of general goods--household supplies, shoes, women's apparel--at one end. 

Marcello Mastroianni once shopped at this store--when
it was in Testaccio's old market

Vendors had begun to humanize their stands with photos of famous customers and the like.  The checkerboard layout of the place thankfully avoids the confusing configuration of the Ponte Milvio market and the subterranean feel of the Trionfale space.

A small group tour--in English

Side walls allow light and air to enter, and skylights brighten the aisles. 

Ancient ruins found under the market

In the center, a piece of Roman wall found during the excavation process is visible below, and more of the archaeological discoveries--the market was built on land that 2,000 years ago was commercially active--will (so they say) be unveiled for the edification of shoppers in about two years.

In short, we wish the market's exterior wasn't quite so stark, so unyieldingly separate from the surrounding buildings.  But we applaud a straightforward interior design that in some basic way suggests the old market. 

Bill

RST is not fond of the exterior of the structure, but it doesn't look so bad from this angle