Market shopping in Italy is amazing. There are different types of markets, some specializing in particular things such as antiques, fish, food or flowers, but there are also more general markets. It’s the general markets I wanna talk about now!
A lot of the general markets, or those that carry a wide variety of items in one place, clothing, shoes, accessories, housewares, toys and fresh food, take place on the same day of the week every week in one particular community. For example, the markets in the communities of Posillipo and Lago Patria take place on Thursdays, while the market in Monteruscello occurs on Wednesdays. Some markets take place on multiple days every week.
While in Italy I was so excited to return to the market that was in my neighborhood of Vomero, an area of Naples. This market is open every day except Sunday. When we lived in Naples I would go to the market 1-2 times per week. It was about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. I treated Sam and I to a cab ride and we headed down to the market on a Saturday morning.
I saw old friends there. The gentleman on the right sells purses and the one on the left works for him. I used to see them every week. They remembered us immediately and the one on the left showed me photos of his new baby. Sam is in the middle behind the pole, being shy I guess?
This gentleman remembered us as well. He sells clothing and wanted to get one of his pieces in the photo, pretty isn’t it? It was August so lots of linen and summery pieces at the markets.
More about clothing, some of the clothing on the tables is used, but most is new, with the tags still on and all of the hanging items are new with tags. The price tag on the pants below shows an original price of 150 Euro ($168), but at the market they were selling items for 15-25 Euro per item.
What else do you need? jewelry? yep, they have it, make-up? yep, they have it, how about underwear? yep, that too.
Let’s talk about the really important stuff, shoes. Remember, it was August, so most of them were sandals, but there were some other styles as well. Personally, fall/winter is my favorite season because of the boots, spring is what I call suede season and then suede transitions to sandals for the summer. I calculated time in Italy by the shoe season, not the calendar.
Not all markets have grocery items, but this market does, both fresh and packaged items.
After shopping I took Sam to the little cafe just outside the market entrance closest to our old apartment, in piazza degli artisti, for a well deserved break. Until next time, ciao!
myviewfromabroad 