Peddlers

Everyone who has visited Rome has seen the street vendors with their umbrellas, parasols, roses, sunglasses, hats, junk toys and souvenirs, purses, scarves, jewelry, and sculptures wandering around town, hawking their wares.  Most visitors also get the chance to see them sprint away as police officers approach.  Most of the time it seems slightly farcical.  The peddlers have their wares neatly on a cloth, in a bag, on a sheet of cardboard, and then a police officer comes within a block and they wrap everything up and race away.  Usually the police officers then walk by while the vendors wait around a corner or behind a parked car until the coast clears, and then back to work.

One day recently, though, I walked past a purse stand I pass everyday, and the police were there with boxes, packing up scarves, and talking excitedly to the man who runs the stand.  When I walked by later, the whole stand was gone, with all its purses, too.  I asked the fellow in the stand next door, and he indicated it had been shut down.  I wondered how long it would take for the fellow to start it back up again.  The next day as I walked past, it was up again, but with only one table of purses, and no scarves. Within a few days, it was back in full swing, with two tables full of purses and the rack of scarves back.

Another day about the same time, I was walking from Piazza Venezia up towards school, and noticed a couple of vendors with their hats and sunglasses on sheets on the ground.  Before I came up to them, however, they suddenly pulled up the corners of the sheets, and started running towards me, almost knocking me down.  I saw behind them what I expected: two police officers calmly walking their direction.  One was on a walkie talkie, radioing ahead to other officers that the vendors were heading their way. 

The vendors can be entertaining, or annoying.  But something may be done about them after all.