A walk through the stalls

Via Orvieto stalls cover almost all merchandising categories, from food to others, are also in a movie, as they are the set of the first movie by the videoblogger and reporter Diego Bianchi, also known as Zoro. (the title of the movie is Arance e Martello, literally Oranges and Hammer)
He actually suggests us to talk to Cristiano, the fishmonger, who in August 2013 closed his stall to leave it for the shooting. He tells us “I bought the stall from a very rich man, who used to work just to annoy others, he used to buy at 10 and sell at 8, so customers would come from all other Rome to buy his fish. He told me take my stall as they are about to move the market and I don’t want to move, but we are still here, twenty years later. I have been waiting all this time to refurbish, but then this year I really had to do it as the stall was almost falling apart”.

Since twenty years via Orvieto market should be renovated “but then they postpone and postpone again – tells us Aldo who runs the stall together with his father Antonio, 84 years old, farmer from Fondi, who wakes up every day at 3 am and comes to the market – I started to work when I was 18 and never stopped, usually I take care of the farm, while my father sells. I am not too young any more, but looking at my father’s example I cannot complain yet”.
The market is on a downhill road, where the most ancient stalls, the farmers’ ones, are at the end, while on top of the hill there are the new generation’s ones, foreigners’, Bengalis’, Indians’. In addition to many fruit and vegetable stalls, often owned by farmers’ themselves, there are butchers, delis (Mauro, Fabio, Valerio and Sara are four cousins let by uncle Roberto), household stalls, an haberdashery, a couple of tailors, clothes, sweets.

Among the last comers, there are two siblings, Flavia and David, who opened an haberdashery, stationery and items for children stall approximately one year ago. Their stall cannot be unnoticed as it’s colorful and full of notebooks, table mats, babywear, Peppa Pig’s handkerchiefs, markers and buttons, little shoes and rulers.
“We noticed that this kind of stall was missing, so we started – tells us Flavia – we know kids well, we work with them every day. Both my brother and I are swimming instructors: this job at the market is perfect for us: in the morning we are here and in the afternoon in the swimming pool”.

There is another interesting stall, managed by the gentle 20 years old Fabrizio. It’s called "Boni come er pane" (literally as good as bread) and Fabrizio’s bread is actually very good. It comes from different bakeries in Rome and Viterbo and there is also a wide variety of traditional biscuits: shortbread biscuits, wine ring-shaped biscuits and, at Christmas time, the typical pangiallo (literally, yellow bread) with honey. If you pass by, don’t forget to taste Nostalgia bread, made of a mix of wheat used during the second world war. For his older customers, who struggle to carry weights and for those who can’t make it to the market, Fabrizio can also deliver at home.