Porta Portese

I became addicted to haggling when I went to Tunisia for Spring Break (I bet you are still waiting for that blog post!). I easily immersed myself in haggling again when I went to the Porta Portese flea market Sunday morning.

The vendors in Africa and the vendors in Italy are different, though. The vendors at the Porta Portese flea market were much more difficult to haggle with. Men at jewelry stands would offer me authentic silver jewelry for 25 euro. I would offer much lower prices like I had in Tunisia. The vendors here are more difficult to persuade! I would get vendors in Tunisia down to extremely low prices (although, sometimes I had to put a great deal of time into haggling). Here, though, they would refuse to budge on "final prices."

Most vendors, here and in Tunisia, spoke enough English to converse with a majority of the tourists exploring the market. I tried to use as little English as possible. I had an entire conversation in Italian with one vendor. Point of advice: when male vendors ask if you are single, just say no! Otherwise you may be offered potentially unwanted "companionship."


I love flea markets, but the Porta Portese market is basically similar to flea markets in the United States: rows and rows of tables with vendors selling jewelry, clothes, shoes, food and various items you will never need. The only difference was conversing with the vendors in another language.

I walked away with a decent amount of silver jewelry and beads to make earrings for my family. Since I was so absorbed in haggling, I did not take pictures at the market. So, thank you internet for the pictures displayed in this post.