The fish auction starts at 4pm. Thirty or so buyers from restaurants, shops and markets sit on one side of the large, cool room that smells like a rock pool. A conveyor belt divides the buyers from the workings of the room: two auctioneers and four men shifting hundreds of polystyrene boxes containing thousands of creatures. Fish that, minutes earlier, were unloaded from boats we watched return from the sea and dock in the canal that cuts through Fiumicino.
If you’ve flown into Fiumicino airport, just outside Rome, there’s a chance you’ve seen the canal as the plane curves to land on a runway near the coast. It was constructed under the emperor Claudius in 46 AD, part of Portus, a large artificial harbour for a growing city sustained by an empire. Built to supplement Ostia, ancient Rome’s original mouth on the sea, Portus would eventually supplant it and for 500 years provided a vital conduit and mighty port. While the new name of Fiumicino is seen on maps dated 1582, the urban and port redevelopment took place in the early 1800s and streets were named with purpose: Via del Tonno (tuna), Via dei Merluzzi (cod), Via dei Salmoni (salmon), Via delle Ostriche (oysters). Today, 25 trawlers and crews can fish designated areas, then dock along the ancient waterway to bring 100 different species to the daily asta that takes place in a side street near the canal mouth.
