One of my favourite pastimes in Italy is browsing the food markets found in every city, neighbourhood, town and village. It’s a wonderful way to join the locals going about their daily business; and the variety of cheese, salumi, preserves, meat, seafood, bread, vegetables and fruit is head-spinning … I always discover something I’ve never seen before. Here are five of my favourite Italian food markets.
Rialto Venice
This outdoor market tucked alongside the Rialto bridge is one of my first stops on any trip to Venice. I love the fresh fish market, the vendors with their buckets of trimmed artichoke hearts – and a panini and glass of red wine at bar Al Mercà afterwards.
Quadrilatero Bologna
This collection of small, packed-to-the-rafters shops lining narrow laneways off Piazza Maggiore is the place to buy all sorts of produce, plus specialties like bronze presses for making passatelli pasta. Lunch on a bar stool at La Baita, outside Vecchia Malga deli, is a delicious way to people watch.
Mercato Centrale Florence
This ornate, glass-ceilinged two-storey market underwent a major refurbishment in 2014, creating a huge artisanal food court on the first floor, while the traditional vendors remain on ground level. I love the schiacciata (Tuscan flatbread) at Pany da Lory and leather shopping at the outside stalls.
Campo de’ Fiori Rome
Rome has many food markets – but this one near Piazza Navona in the historic centre is perhaps the oldest. Once a meadow (the name means ‘field of flowers’), a horse market, and a place of public execution, it’s smaller than many but vibrant and brimming with character.
Catania Sicily
The fish and produce market at the bottom of the old city of Catania, at the base of Mt Etna, is a huge warren of streets, stalls, carts, smells and noise – reminiscent of an Arabic souk. The graphic displays by the offal butchers are not for the feint-hearted or vegetarian.
Keen to Discover More of Italy?
Check out my Food & Wine Tour to Emilia-Romagna.
