I love markets. It’s always fun browsing around to see what people are buying and selling in different parts of the world. In Rome, the market at Campo di Fiori is well-known. This little morning market on the other hand, a small cluster of stalls sandwiched on a narrow road between government buildings and apartment blocks is probably your typical Roman neighbourhood market. Unlike the usual Asian markets, there’s nothing freshly killed. Most Italians get their meat and fish from shops instead of makeshift stalls like these. Instead, what’s on sale is a hodge-podge of fresh vegetables and fruits, flowers, sundries, scarves, clothes, bags, cheap t-shirts and even swimwear and underwear.

Loved the colour of the vegetable stands and just look at the different types of tomatoes on sale! Unlike my neighbourhood market where you would find shoppers unceremoniously sniffing at, then pinching, prodding and pressing the fruits and vegetables, I didn’t see anyone doing that here. And I didn’t want to risk an earful of Italian scolding by trying either.

Colourful swimwear, underwear and resort wear on sale. Loved the colours. Sure we do have stalls selling underwear at some markets at home but those mostly came in pale conservative granny colours with maybe red offering the occasional dash of pizzazz. But here in this little market, you’d find exciting lime green, hot fuchsia, turquoise, orange and all types of prints. So I guess you know you’re in Italy by the psychedelic underwear on sale! They had one stall selling factory over-runs of designer children’s clothes but the stuff was priced really high for a market. I didn’t bother to bargain since I wasn’t very keen but we did end up buying some cheap €6 t-shirts as souvenirs.

The bags were tempting but we were saving ourselves for Florence so we gave it a miss. And because we were planning to move around the old centre of Rome that morning, we regrettably gave these juicy-looking melons a miss too: