I arrived in Rome on April 15, after cruising across the Atlantic on the Celebrity Constellation (excellent food BTW).

I researched bead shopping as much as I could prior to leaving on my trip, but did not come up with too many ideas for Rome. Most of my 9 days there was spent with a tour. I had a little time left over to explore on my own.

The big Sunday flea market at Porta Portese was pretty much a bust for anything antique or even vintage when it came to beads. There was an aisle of tables with antiques - just a scant few that had beads - a few vintage coral beaded pieces, and one or two items with old Venetians. A little better selection if shopping for old micro-mosaic pieces.

There are two bead stores on Via Sora in Rome- La Perla D'Oriente at #30 and Novita at #17A. The first store had only new beads, mostly from Venice, and the second was more of a "regular" bead store with a wide variety of beads & findings. No antique beads at either shop, but Novita had one tray of vintage hollow ceramic beads, maybe 30-40 years old from Venice. The clerk had little English - she did say that these cannot be gotten any more. Any other info would be appreciated (see photo below).