Markets

One of the best ways to understand the culture and eating habits of the locals is to visit their markets. Food they eat has always been an integral part of their culture. A casual walk in the markets is to experience the lives of the local populace in the raw. Within the neighborhood, you have  a chance to smell what they smell, see the clutters, listen to the haggling, quarrel and sighs and most of all eat what they eat.

Mercato di Rialto (Rialto Seafood Market), Venice.

This is one of the hugely popular and highly recommended place for a visit. We chose to walk from the Venice Train Station to this destination along the alleyway alongside the canal which is longer to avoid getting lost had we chose the shorter route. The shorter route zigzags through the labyrinth of alleyways. We ended spending longer than the normal 20 minutes duration because of distractions along the way. 

So by the time we reached this market past noon and closed to 1.00pm, the Neo-Gothic market halls were already closed. We were in fact uncertain whether it was closed because it was a non-business day or it was the end of the trading day. Outside the halls, the fish loading areas were all cleaned up, containers stacked leaving only a couple of vegetables and fruits stores still opened for business.

Neo-Gothic Halls at the right.

Catania Fish Market

This is a market dedicated to seafood - typical of a rather chaotic, noisy wet market. Besides seafood, there are many canopy-covered stores selling vegetables, fruits, spices, condiments, cheese and butter.

Our dinner for the night was chilli mussels purchased from this store.

We bought and tasted for the first time the
roasted onions and eggplants .

Mercato, Ortigia

This market or simply being referred to as Mercato in Italian overlooks the Ionian Sea. It is just two streets behind the place where we stayed. Thie stuff sold in this street market is similar to the Fish Market we visited in Catania but at a much smaller scale and in a cleaner environment.