Best Shopping in Rome: Streets, Stores and Markets You’ll Love

Rome, the «Eternal City», is full of beautiful places and secret corners. However long your vacation is, there's never enough time to see it all, but you should always save room for one essential activity: shopping in Rome.

If you want to shop where Romans themselves usually go, here are two sides of Rome: low-cost shopping and high-class shopping.

Low-Cost Shopping

Via del Corso

One of the main streets for shopping in Rome is Via del Corso. This handsome street runs from Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo, is roughly 10 meters wide and about 1.5 km long.

Along Via del Corso, you'll find all kinds of brands, from high-street names to some very upmarket labels. It's also a good place to find restaurants in Rome.

Thanks to its central location, its history and the sights around it, it's also a great area to stay in Rome. To help you out, we put together a list of the best hotels on Via del Corso in Rome, weighing up price, quality and guest reviews.

If you want a break from shopping, just a 6-minute walk from Piazza del Popolo you'll find the lovely Villa Borghese, the most central and most important park in Rome.

Via Cola di Rienzo

Another street in the same vein but a little less crowded is Via Cola di Rienzo. It sits very close to the Vatican Museums and, like Via del Corso, it's lined with shops that are good, attractive and easy on the wallet.

Shopping malls

You can also head to one of Rome's shopping malls, such as C.C. Cinecittà, C.C. Euroroma2 and C.C. Galleria Porta di Roma, where you'll find a huge range of stores.

Street markets

Other options for budget shopping in Rome are what Romans call «bancarelle» or «mercatini» (street markets), and you'll find them in almost every neighborhood in Rome.

Here you'll see stall after stall piled with clothes, shoes and accessories from little-known (or completely unknown) brands, but at seriously affordable prices.

A few examples: Porta Portese -open only on Sunday mornings- located between Piazzale Portuense and Viale Trastevere in Trastevere.

Mercato Monti, on Via Leonina, just outside the metro station, and the Villa Glori market, open only on Sundays, where you can even pick up furniture for the house.

Find more details in Rome's street markets.

High-Class Shopping

With Italy one of the capitals of fashion and design, in Rome you can find the most celebrated labels right at home.

Rome has two main streets for high-end shopping, Via Condotti and Via Borgognona, both in the same central area, very close to the Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna), a mecca for wealthy shoppers from all over the world and for anyone who fancies a treat.

Via Condotti

Let's start with the first one, Via Condotti: stand on the Spanish Steps with Trinità dei Monti behind you and one of the most famous streets in the world opens up in front of you, Via Condotti, home to practically every major brand on the planet.

Bulgari, Cartier, Gucci and Prada, with that famous «Made in Italy» label. The window displays are put together with immaculate care, style and elegance to match each store, from jewelry, shoes and ties to bags and clothing. Plenty of visitors consider them photo- and video-worthy in their own right.

Worth knowing: always keep an eye on the road, because although very few cars come through, they aren't banned and one can appear at any moment while you're lost in the window displays.

Via Borgognona

Moving on to Via Borgognona, it runs parallel to Via Condotti and, though there are fewer of them, you'll find more top-reputation labels here too.

You can enjoy not just the windows, the quality, the fashion, the products and the stores themselves, but also the beautiful 18th-century neoclassical facades.

If you're not tired yet and can stretch the walk a little further, take a look at the Palazzo Fendi on Largo Goldoni, at the junction of Via Condotti and Via del Corso. This is Fendi's largest store, filling an entire 19th-century palace.

Where can you shop cheaply in Rome?

According to www.romando.org, the best areas for cheap shopping in Rome are Via del Corso (affordable fashion), Via Cola di Rienzo (brands and outlets), the Porta Portese market (every Sunday, items from €1) and the Castel Romano outlet, 25 km from the center, with 30–70% discounts on Italian brands all year round.