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Shopping Diary |
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written
by zinnia / 10.24.2005 |
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| Your Shopping Diary |
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Shopping Diary
8/24/05
My first pair of Italian shoes!
Strolling down an unvisited street of the Campo, I stopped to check out a shoe store named “Shape”. To my surprise, the store although small, has quite a few eye catching products. My focus zoomed onto a pair of semi-casual sandals. The design of the shoes was simple enough: a single horizontal band at the front adorned with a nonfunctioning silver buckle, with beige body color and thin green and orange vertical stripes. The peculiar thing about the sandals was that they seemed to be…wooden. Not very good arch support, as I discovered when trying it on. But they were cute! The one inch thickness made it a bit more formal but not uncomfortable. I decided to wait and think over the decision. An hour later my mind was made. I strode back to the store and asked to try on the sandals once more. As I observed them in the mirror and with a hesitant look on my face, the salesperson offered a discount if I decide to buy them. I didn’t know you can bargain in this kind of store! In the end, I bought my adorable sandals 75% the original price!
8/27/05
First trip to Aqua & Sapone
I took my first trip to the aqua & sapone today. I should have gone quite a while ago, 4 days before, to be exact; it’s strange how I feel like I’ve been in Rome for forever, when in actuality only less than week has passed by. Syriah gave me directions to the shop: I was to come out of the apartment, turn right, turn right again, and arrive at the shop in the corner. Following her instruction I went, however not finding myself near any aqua & sapone. Nonetheless, my mood lightened quite a bit when I discovered a shoe shop with a wide variety of really cute shoes on display; I wanted to visit it the last time I came down the street, when the owner was unfortunately on vacation. After going in and with a brief glance of the shop’s shoes, I asked the shop owner if she knew of any aqua & sapone nearby. She was extremely nice! Not only did she tell me where it is, but she actually went outside the store and led me to the street where the aqua & sapone is (right around the corner, it turns out)!
8/28/05
Flea market
6 in the morning we woke for a stroll to the flea market in Trastevere. After what seemed like millions of twists and turns we eventually entered through a side street that led to the market. Although called a ‘market’, the shopping stands are actually packed along one or two main streets (very long) with a few little detours here and there. Of course the organization seemed anything but organized while we were in midst of it all. At first I was not impressed. The initial entrance led to the side street where people sell secondhand clothing. Not only clothing though, some even have written postcards displayed! It became more and more…normal as we progressed toward the central street. Now the shopping begins! We walked and looked, stopping once for a delicious beef sandwich and another time for soda. In the end, after over three hours of walking we finished about two thirds of the market. As it was, the Sunday flea market turned out to be very similar to the ones China; how they lined along streets, the venders trying to attract each passerby’s attention, the similar variety of products (including the good old counterfeit~).
8/31/05
My own sandwich
After eating out for a week, Shivali and I decided that too much money has gone towards food and it’s time to cut down. We opted to buy ingredients for making a sandwich, like what most other people are doing. After getting the breads that we need at the Forno, we stopped at the huge meat truck sitting in the middle of the Campo market. The lady was very nice. Paying a total of four euro, I ended up with two euro worth of salami and 3 euro worth of cheese!
9/04/05
I found caramel!
On our way back to Campo di Fiori, Nina, Shivali and I decided to tour Italy’s McDonald’s. The Gods were on our side; the bus stopped right in front of our destination. Looking over their one euro menu my eyes strayed to the large ice cream commercial on the side. And there it was! (drum roll and music start) Sundaes with caramel sauce! (end) Of course that’s what I ordered. Although small – apparently everything in Italia is miniaturized, the caramel glazed ice cream was delicious! Especially after almost two weeks of deprivation.
9/11/05
Reminiscence: the shirts that I regret buying
During my first week in Rome I bought two shirts from a store called NIK. Because the store was the first one that didn’t not fit my taste, I immediately went in and picked out two shirts; ten euro each, not pricy right? At first I was quite satisfied with the shirts: a green short sleeve v-neck tee and a white loose retro sleeveless top, both decorated with gold design. After a couple of days, when reexamining the green shirt I noticed that there are foul language in the design! And when I put on the white sleeveless the back side turned out to be too loose … I strongly dislike clothing stores that won’t let their customers try on clothes! Of course it’s all too late now. Even if the stores here allowed returns, I already cut the tags off the shirt, and no idea where the receipt is.
9/17/05
Florence!
There were no complaints (at least not from me) when Lisa announced that we were to meet her at the bus 7am sharp. It’s Florence! And since we need to be on our way back at 4pm, the earlier we leave the better. Florence is not at all what I expected. It’s not even a big city, just a town that’s of walkable distance. The leather market was incredible! I didn’t realize it back then, but the things they sold there are so much cheaper when compared to equivalent items’ prices in Rome. I regret very much not getting more scarves there. Because all the ones I purchased in Florence were the ones that I really liked, I ended up buying more (at a higher price too) back in Rome. Anyway, after getting scarves and grabbing a bite to eat we headed back to Lisa’s leather shop. Immediately after getting there and letting Lisa know I’m still round and about, I headed back to the leather market. There’s still so much that I wanted to buy! However, I spent the remainder of my time in Lisa’s leather bag store, where after much deliberation I decided on a dark brown leather tote for mom and a small hobo for myself.
Interesting end that concluded my Florence experience: Shivali and I got lost on our way back!! We met up at 3:40pm thinking that 20 minutes should be plenty of time for us to find our way back. Not so; we didn’t get to the bus until a half an hour later! To tell the truth, I don’t remember what route we took to get to the bus, or how we gone astray in the first place. I’m very thankful that by the time of the trip we’ve already learned the Italian needed to ask for directions. It’s so much easier to follow other people’s directions than deciphering a map. On the way back we stopped at least three or four times for directions; I even went up to a Chinese shopkeeper and asked in Chinese! It was quite an experience.
9/19/05
5 wallets
The Sunday morning after Notte Bianca, Campo di Fiori was not vacant like on other Sundays. The square was filled with umbrella stands. They weren’t the usual produce venders that reside in the Campo on weekdays either. The Campo has become a mini flea market, except the products are a lot better in quality, and of course quite expensive comparatively. Most of the stands are covered with piles of colorful scarves of a variety of materials, of course there’s also displays of leather and fabric bags here and there, as well as miscellaneous little adornments scattered throughout. The stand at one end of the Campo caught my attention. The stand displayed a selection of colorful wallets in different sizes and shapes. At first I bought just two medium sized purses (white and green), with a free coin purse – adorable kitty face – since the vender refused to lower the price. Through the course of the day, as I went back several times accompanying other people, I ended getting another two. I decided to save the extra ones as gifts for my cousins when I see them in December.
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