Marco Aureli runs a fruit and vegetable stall on Testaccio market. His stall, Box No 50, occupies a great position in the sociable middle of the market, right next to the sunken excavations of an ancient road, and opposite the bar. Like all the stalls on the new market, it is a white box that is open on two sides: the longer, slanted counter is divided into sections for vegetables, and the shorter one is full of fruit. Much of the produce is produzione proprio, or their own produce. Either from Casaletto, a green belt of the city just a few kilometres away, or cultivated on land that Marco’s family rents in Maccarese on the coast. While he is often around on a Saturday (unloading or sitting on the bench trimming vegetables), Marco’s father Mattia has recently stepped back from the stall, leaving the day-to-day running to his son. Before Mattia, the stall was run by his mother, Esterina, who began in 1938 at the old site in Piazza Testaccio.
Like market stalls the world over – shops and supermarkets, too, for that matter – the stall is at its best first thing in the morning, when Marco has just set up and each section is full or piled high. The whole thing seems like a bushy patchwork. I particularly like the potato end of the long counter, with its two spud mountains, one muddy yellow, the other carmine-red. Above the potatoes are the onions, blue-green blistered kale, savoy and bald ballhead cabbages, and the last of the courgette greens. At this time of year, the chicory, broccoli, cime di rapa radicchio and fennel piles are also high.
