ROME – classic shops
When you think of shopping in Rome, trendy blingy fashionable shops selling glitzy apparel, fancy Italian shoes and other overpriced but stylish accessories might pop into mind. Let me, however, take you for a stroll in today’s Rome city center. There is classic treasure to be found by following our prying eyes down those narrow alleys…

Tucked away in the narrow alleys around Piazza Navona, it is not difficult to encounter workshops specialized in the upkeep and maintenance of straw and wicker furniture, a job unchanged over centuries.

This is the bizzarre entrance to a restaurant called Canova Tadolini on Via del Babuino. It was an artists’ studio – originally rented by Antonio Canova for his favorite apprentice Adamo Tadolini.

On Via dei Banchi Vecchi there is a little shop selling a bit of everything, including firewood. The owner sits out front reding a magazine, screwdrivers on the ready, between three of Italy’s most classic vehicles: a Fiat 500, a vintage Vespa scooter, and one of our modest little two-stroke, three-wheeled Piaggio Ape pickup trucks.

Many of Rome’s shops now stand in reconverted stables where horses and other livestock were once sheltered. Over time means of locomotion changed but the shops remained essentially the same. From shoeing horses to fixing bicycles to small motorcycles to modern superbikes and plastic scooters. One thing never changes: the neighbors complaining of the noise and/or the smell.

Some real gems are to be found in the narrowest little alleys. This shop just around the corner from Piazza Sant’Eustachio is as antique as the lovely wares it displays.

Shop for clergy (yes, members of clergy are allowed to go shopping, provided they don’t enjoy the experience). One cardinal is sampling the material for a robe to be commissioned at Cammarelli, a taylor specializing in clerical apparel.

This is not really a shop, but a great Roman tradition nonetheless. Around Christmas time, Piazza Navona is filled with stalls selling everythig from little figurines with which to recreate nativity scenes, to toys and gifts for small children, to games (shoot the balloon…) and traditional festive sweets, such as here. This is torrone, or nougat.
All photographs taken in November 2012.
Please note: I am now traveling and away from my home base, so please be patient if i can’t reply to comments as soon or as often as i’d like.
Alessandro Ciapanna