Ten addresses worth crossing the city for — and a few worth crossing the street for.
Rome's best shops are not on Via dei Condotti. They are in Monti, on Via Margutta, in the lanes behind Campo de' Fiori — run by people who have been at the same address for generations and have no particular interest in scaling. Buy what you cannot get at home, and ask the proprietor what they would buy. The answers are usually correct.
The Milan-based designer's Rome outpost. Soft cashmeres, washed cottons, and the kind of unstructured tailoring that travels well. The staff are unrushed and will let you live in the dressing room. Buy the corduroy.
Daria Reina and Andrea Ferolla's small shop on one of Rome's most beautiful streets. Hand-illustrated tote bags, scarves, books, and travel objects. Everything is made in Italy. The tote with the lemon is the one to buy.
Three floors of carefully edited contemporary designers — Lemaire, The Row, Bottega — in a palazzo near Piazza del Popolo. The buy is sharp and the building is worth the visit on its own.
Patrizia Fabri has been making hats in Monti for decades. Felt, straw, leather — measured to your head and finished while you wait if you have the time. The shop smells of steam and wool. Go.
A one-room marble carver's workshop on the prettiest street in Rome. Sandro Fiorentini carves a phrase of your choice into a small slab of travertine while you wait. A souvenir that is actually a souvenir.
Strategic Business Unit. Two brothers, raw selvedge denim cut in Rome since 1996, sold from a former pharmacy with the original wood cabinetry intact. The jeans last a decade. The shop is worth visiting for the room alone.
The Roscioli family's deli is the place to buy what you wish you could take home — aged parmigiano, anchovies from Cetara, the bread. Pack the suitcase with the empty space and fill it here on the last morning.
A Tuscan family of woodcarvers with a shop near the Pantheon. The clocks are kitsch but the cutting boards, spoons, and small carved animals are genuinely well made and a fraction of what you'd pay elsewhere. For children, the answer.
A small but seriously stocked boutique with Aquazzura, Khaite, Magda Butrym, and Italian labels that haven't yet reached the rest of the world. The owner will steer you. Let her.
Rome's oldest open-air market. The produce stalls are decent, the spice and pasta vendors are better, and the flowers are excellent. Go at 8am on a weekday for the locals, before the tour groups arrive.