Mercati

You didn't expect me to ignore the markets, did you?

Here's a site for the Markets of Rome: MarketsofRome.com.  And if you like, there is an Italian version: Mercati di Roma.  I'm not sure what will be available in November but it is the Mediterranean so I have high hopes.

There is the Mercato Trionfale, just north of Vatican City, so we can go visit that when we get bored with the Pope.  It moved to Via Andrea Doria in 2009 and is now housed in an indoor complex which is is a 10-minute walk from Ottaviano metro station.  It is open every day but Sunday (7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Friday).  The Parla Food blog has a posting on it from February 2012 and Katie Parla has a Youtube Video on the Trionfale area as well.

Campo dei Fiori
Dennis Callan of the Hawaiian Geographical Society has a video about the early morning market at Campo dei Fiori, in case you are an early riser.

As for Supermercati, here are 5 rules for shopping in them.

Put on the protective gloves for selecting your fruits and vegetables (don't touch the vegetables in the open air mercati!)

Weigh your fruits and vegetables and label them with the price

Bag your own groceries

Bags aren't free so bring your own...

Line cutting is permitted (especially if you are a little old lady with only a few items...Like us??)

Access Italy has some more tips on supermarket shopping.

Other quirks and useful things to know are

1.  Some enormous Italian supermarkets will charge you 1 Euro for a cart.  Update: it seems the carts are chained together and you need to deposit a coin to get one loose,  Then when you return it, you get your euro back.  Aceess Italy says the cart is a carrello.  I'm assuming these are only in the large supermarkets with parking lots.
2. An etto is 100 grams or a little more than 3 ounces.  So we could say tre etti for about 10 ounces -- or maybe that is too much salami for 3 people.  Maybe due etti would be a better quantity.