Now that I am back in Rome, and getting ready to hibernate for the winter, one of my favorite pastimes is to go to the street market below my house and smell the wonderful aromas and listen to the general chatter and banter of the people who parade up and down.
The familiar faces and street vendors are part of the pleasure , the old ladies stroke Raffles and fuss over him, the lady at the bar brings me my black coffee with the special sweeteners and I read my newspaper , slightly distracted by the noise and the general confusion surrounding me.
I feel a sense of belonging to this community and even though I am not Italian, I immensely enjoy the total chaotic, somehow coordinated magic mess that this street market offers!
As you can see they sell absolutely everything from fruit, fish, old clothes, pictures, second hand books, handbags , shoes, and lots of tempting articles that are useless but that are just fun to buy !
However this wonderful street is all about to change, amongst the shouts of the vendors and the old ladies gossiping and complaining , there is a distinct, sound of building and construction noises humming away in the background and I fear that in the near future , this wonderful and sensuous street market that unites everybody in the morning, is about to be shoved inside into a ghastly shopping mall !
Thank god that these things take time in Italy !
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