72 Hours of Football Foraging in Rome

After checking in with my favorite football city in the south, Napoli. I took the two-hour train up to the Italian capital to explore a new city and see what Rome had to offer. 

Like usual before I left the UK, I did some solid homework into one of the cities that I get messaged about the most. On the surface similar to Madrid, there's not a lot of decent information about good places to football thrift and vintage shirts spots in the Rome but I had a proper dig and I hope this can help you when you next visit.  

Before I get into it, I know a lot of people might want to replicate a similar journey in the future, so I thought I would just let you know a little bit about the trains between Rome and Napoli. There is a very regular service running nearly every hour between the two cities. There are two price options - The first will set you back about £40 and will get you there in a speedy one hour, but if you're not in a huge rush, there are trains available for as little as £12 and these take just over two hours. Like most major train services in Italy, they are generally quite safe, spacious and have air con & charging stations. 

When you first arrive at Rome Termini, which is Europe's biggest train station, there is a solid hub of underground and bus connections. The tube is easy enough to navigate if your staying centrally but of course, be careful of the famous Rome pickpockets which seem to be rife in the busy tourist areas. I rarely took the underground in the city when I was there to be honest because I chose to stay in quieter southwest of the city, close to my main attraction of the weekend the legendary Porta Portese Flea market. 

Rome is obviously a very, very busy tourist spot, so if you're not here to see the Colosseum or Trevi fountain, I would try to swerve the central area of the city as much as you can. 

Made easier probably because of the number of tourists, I did find their bus payment system one of the best I've used on my travels. You can pay contactless on pretty much all buses and, once you tap your card and charged €1.50 your journey is then valid for 100 minutes, so even if you change bus your ticket is still rolling, but I would still recommend tapping on every bus you get on just incase the infamous ticket wardens get on your bus and start checking tickets. This has happened to me in the past in Italy and is not a pleasant experience. 

First off I guess I should start with Porta Portese flea market which was one of the main reasons I traveled to the city. The flea as it is today traces its origins back to the late 19th century when it started as a small local market. Over the years, it grew in size and popularity, eventually becoming the largest flea market in Rome. The name refers to the nearby gate of the ancient city which is at one end of where the market is held every Sunday.

I had heard good things about the legendary flea and it really didn't disappoint. I arrived at 6am whilst some vendors were still setting up, and I would suggest you do the same so you can dig through a hefty chunk of the market before the crowds flood in at 9am.

The bottom section of the market is mainly clothing, old and new. The classic  €2-5 euro piles are worth taking some time to sift through. I found some nice old football Kappa shorts, some fan shirts, training vests and a couple of legendary Adidas templates, all for bargain prices. In the middle of the market there is a hill that takes you up to another section of the market. Here you will find more of your typical flea market stalls selling second-hand trinkets of all shapes and sizes. I managed to unearth a whole selection of badges, posters and flags as well as some trademark club pennants and even a rare pair of AS Roma Kappa football boots that you don't see every day. Good job I was staying close because I was completely stacked by 10am, and even if I didn't find anything else for the next two days left I think I would of been very satisfied with my football haul. 

After the busy Sunday morning, I headed back to my accommodation, which, again, I would recommend for a cheap city stay if you're just there for a few days and just looking for a base and not expecting to be spending much time in your hotel room - www.radiohotelroma.com

I took some time to chill and cool down back at base before I headed out to grab some food and sneak into the city centre for my one and only time to track down the legendary Totti mural. After a twenty-minute bus ride, I touched down in the core of the city and was navigating my way through the picturesque Roman streets that lead down to Via Della Madonna Dei Monti where the legendary Rione Monti mural lives. It was created in 2001, to celebrate the third AS Roma championship win and although its looking a little sad after 24 years of weathering and defacing, it was still nice to see it in real life as its one of those murals that I have seen over the years online. I had it all to myself as well which was nice, so I just took a second to soak it up, listened to the birds and Italian life happening all around me and fired off a few photos before heading off for a much-needed lunch.  

I'm a sucker for a mortadella pizza and, after a tip off from a friend, I headed to Mami pizzaria, which is a family-run restaurant, and the mother and son team served me up a pizza that went straight in to my top ten of all time. I inhaled this in seconds and with the taste of fresh burrata and pistachio still running through me, I nipped of to a couple of vintage shops that were central based and not to far to walk in the 40-degree heat. 

The first one is Piefbo vintage. This shop was another recommendation and had a wide range of mens and women's vintage. Unfortunately, anything that was half decent was either not for sale and just for display or wildly overpriced or damaged, so I wouldn't waste your time heading there unless you're on the hunt for a vintage leather jacket which seemed to make up the whole first floor of the shop.  

I took a quick look in a Humana vintage store that just happened to be on my route before heading off to Goal Soccer Teams, which is regarded as Rome's best vintage football shirt shop. The shop is another family-run business that has been going for over twenty five years. Unfortunately, the prices were on the high side for what I usually expect to pay in Europe but I had a nice chat with the friendly owner and there was some great old original advertising that itself is quite nice to see in the flesh, including an epic 2000 Kappa Kombat display poster. Overall, if your at a lose end in the centre of town I definitely think its worth having a little nose in but don't hold your breath for a bargain. 

Before I melted in the increasing heat, I jumped back on the air-conditioned bus for home. I traded the air con bus for inside Ciro's which is a super-friendly Turkish quick-eat restaurant that has a chain across the city. If your visiting and just want something easy these guys wont let you down. I even got a free starter and Turkish syrup dessert with my wrap. You couldn't ask for much better service than that. 

With the weather being so hot you really have to make the most of the cooler morning temperatures, so after my Ciro's and another early night I was up and out by 7 for my last full day in the capital. I didn't have the biggest list to get through but I set myself a few key spots to check out before another Italian tat tour came to an end. 

First up another flea market, this time - Rome Via Sannio. This market seems to be on every day apart from Sunday and I think maybe on the Saturday this market has a much larger tarped area which didn't seem to be open when I was there, unfortunately. But even without this locked-off area there were still a solid twenty stalls with more piles of vintage to rummage through and even a couple of vintage football shirt stalls. I picked up a selection of nice sports shorts for 3 euros a piece and also a glorious Daniel Fonseca bootleg for 10 euros. 

After that I took the five-minute stroll up the road to pay my respects to another legendary Totti mural in his native neighbourhood, San Giovanni. This huge mural is in a quiet part of the city, painted on the side of a school and next to a football field where Totti hosts some of his soccer schools. This and the flea are in really close proximity, so If you have time, I would highly recommend heading to the south of the centre for this double header. 

I made sure to alway dedicate some time to visiting a couple of Mercatino's. As I've mentioned in the past, similar to Humana's if your in any major Italian city, I would definitely recommend having a quick look in one of these. Some of these stores can be absolutely huge and as well as housing the odd bit of football tat, they also have really nice homeware and even a separate vintage clothing and jewelry and watch section. You really never know what you're going to get when you walk into one of these and I was in luck when visiting the huge Porta Maggiore store as it had all of the above. A huge underground shop packed with everything imaginable.

I've found excellent football watches in stores like this in the past, but sadly, this time I had no luck in the vintage clothing area, but my football blessings were answered when I visited the book and toy section at the opposite end of the huge store. Straight away I was greeted by a beautiful 2001 champions flag hanging from the ceiling and a solid range of well-looked-after posters. I of course, added all of these to my shopping bag before heading off to pay before being called back by a friendly guy working in the shop who told me there was 30% off everything in store and also would I like a Roma training vest that had just come in? So it was the perfect pit stop and also nice and cool which was an added bonus. If you just search for Mercatino on Google maps, it should point you in the right direction. I think in Rome alone there is over twenty of these epic second-hand stores. 

One last long bus trip up to the Vatican City where I had a tip off about a shop run by two brothers called AS Roma Shop (Via Leone 55). Don't be put off by the name, as this is not just another overpriced official club shop, the football boutique stocks an infinite amount of apparel from the last 10–20 years, the really hard-to-find stuff, were talking Totti, Nakata, De Rossi and Batigol shirts and all at really reasonable prices. The guys are friendly and there is a even some solid vintage AS Roma tat that you cant find anywhere else in the city. It's definitely worth the journey up to this part of the city to visit this Roma grail store and who knows you might even catch a glimpse of the new pope.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised with what Rome had to offer from football foraging perspective. You have to work for it and travel around the city a bit, but as i explained the buses are really reasonable and fairly frequent so there's no excuse really if you do want to get your hands on some fun football tat to bring home from your travels. 

Anyway I hope this helps you with your own future football adventures in the Italian capital. As always, all the stuff I picked up is now live on the store in the Tour De Tat section of the shop and if you use the code TOTTITAT you will get 15% off your order. 

Grazie Mille