The 8 Best Markets in Rome (2026)

The food markets. If you visit one market in Rome, make it Testaccio Market. Testaccio is the old working-class district built round Rome's former slaughterhouse, and its covered market, a modern building designed by architect Marco Rietti and open on all four sides, sells meat, fish, cheese, vegetables, bread and wine, alongside clothes and household stalls. For visitors, the draw is the street-food stalls, which make it one of the best lunches in the city, and the Testaccio food tours stop here too.

The best stalls: Mordi e Vai (box 15) is the one with the queue: Sergio's soft ciabatta rolls, dipped in broth and filled with boiled beef (lesso di scottona), picchiapò (beef stewed with tomato and onion), tripe or meatballs, from his mother's recipes. CasaManco (box 22) makes pizza alla pala, a long, light slab pizza from a 72-hour dough, topped with produce from the stalls round it. Esattolo (box 16) is another pizza counter, ROSA cibo italiano (box 21) does piadina flatbreads and Roman fried food (salt cod, battered vegetables), Food Box (box 66) does supplì (fried rice balls) and croquettes, and Toastaccio (box 75) has 29 kinds of toasted sandwich. For wine, da Corrado al banco 18 sells natural wine.

Spend: the stalls don't publish prices online. Open: Monday to Saturday, 7am to 3:30pm; closed Sunday. Metro: Piramide (Line B), about 10 minutes. The catch: the food stalls queue up at lunchtime, so come before noon if you can, and it's all over by mid-afternoon.

Campo de' Fiori is the market everyone has heard of: the old wooden stalls in the middle of the historic centre selling flowers, fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. The market moved here from Piazza Navona in 1869. In the middle stands Ettore Ferrari's statue (1889) of the philosopher Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake on this spot in 1600.

Come for the square as much as the shopping: a coffee, the flower stalls and the bakeries and delis round its edges. For a bigger working food market with street food, go to Testaccio or Trionfale. Open: every morning, Monday to Saturday; closed Sunday. Getting there: five minutes' walk south of Piazza Navona. The catch: the stalls pack up around lunchtime, and in the evening the square turns into a bar crowd.

Mercato Trionfale, a few minutes north of the Vatican Museums on Via Andrea Doria, calls itself Rome's biggest market, with almost 100 years of history and 275 businesses selling food, meat, fish, fruit, spices, wine and household goods, plus places to eat. It's the everyday market for the Prati and Trionfale neighbourhoods.

Open: market stalls Monday to Thursday and Saturday 7am to 2pm, Friday until 7pm; the food and restaurant stalls stay open until 11pm Tuesday to Saturday. Closed Sunday. Metro: Cipro or Ottaviano (Line A). It pairs well with a morning at the Vatican Museums: go before your slot, or for lunch afterwards. The catch: most of the market shuts at 2pm, so an afternoon museum slot means you'll see only the food stalls.

The weekend farmers' market. The Mercato Campagna Amica on Via di San Teodoro, between the Circus Maximus and the Bocca della Verità, is a farmers' market where producers, many of them from farms in Lazio, sell directly: seasonal vegetables, mozzarella and cheese made from the day's milk, cured meats, bread from wood-fired ovens, olive oil and wine.

Open: Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 3pm. Metro: Circo Massimo (Line B), about 10 minutes. It's the only produce market on this list open on a Sunday, and a short walk from the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The catch: it's weekends only, and prices aren't published online.

Food halls and international markets. Mercato Centrale Roma opened in October 2016 on Via Giolitti, along the side of Termini station. It's a food hall more than a market: counters run by named artisans, among them Stefano Callegari's trapizzino (a pocket of pizza bread filled with Roman stews), Luca Mastracci's pizza, Raffaele D'Errico's bread, Paolo Pomposi's gelato, a beer hall and the Vinario4 wine bar, spread over two floors.

Spend: counter prices aren't published online, but the Aperitivo Centrale, a drink and a snack from one of the counters, is €12 every day from 5pm to 9pm. Open: every day, 7:30am to 11:30pm. Metro: Termini (Lines A and B), about 5 minutes. It's the obvious meal if you're arriving or leaving by train, or staying near the station (see hotels near Termini). The catch: it's a food hall of prepared-food counters, not a produce market.

The Nuovo Mercato Esquilino, two blocks from Piazza Vittorio, is Rome's most international market. It's where the Esquilino, the city's most mixed neighbourhood, shops: Turismo Roma describes a huge covered neighbourhood market full of colours, smells and flavours from all over the world.

Open: Monday to Saturday from 5am; food stalls close at 3pm on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and at 5pm on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday. Metro: Vittorio Emanuele (Line A), about 3 minutes. Come for its wide range of international spices, herbs and ingredients. The catch: it's a plain, practical market, not a pretty one.

Flea and clothing markets. Porta Portese is Rome's great Sunday flea market. It started around 1945, taking over the black market that had been trading near Campo de' Fiori, and it now fills the streets between Porta Portese, Via Portuense, Via Ettore Rolli and Piazza Ippolito Nievo at the southern end of Trastevere. Turismo Roma's list of what's sold runs from antiques, paintings and books to records, clothes, toys, linens and car parts.

Open: Sunday only, from 6am to 2pm; some stalls stay until about 5pm. Getting there: tram 8 to Viale di Trastevere, or walk from the centre of Trastevere. Go early for the best finds, haggle politely, and bring cash. Watch your pockets: the streets get packed on a Sunday morning, and tight crowds are where pickpockets work. Keep your phone and wallet in a zipped pocket, wear your bag in front, and don't stop to deal with anyone who bumps into you or blocks your way. The catch: a lot of it is everyday clothes and household goods; the antiques and vintage take patience to find.

The Mercato di Via Sannio in San Giovanni, a short walk from the Aurelian Walls and the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, is a big market for clothes: Turismo Roma lists jumpers, jeans, jackets, belts, sheets and blankets, and stalls of military surplus such as boots, mess tins and compasses.

Open: Monday to Saturday, until 4:30pm; closed Sunday. Metro: San Giovanni (Lines A and C). Come for jeans, jackets and military-surplus clothing; it's a weekday alternative to Porta Portese. The catch: it's mostly everyday clothes, so it's for shoppers rather than sightseers.