Market shopping in Bolzano
Organic produce, local crafts and specialties like speck and salami abound when you are market shopping in Bolzano.
A couple of weeks ago I woke up in Bolzano and found the inner city transformed into a busy and inviting street market. In Puglia markets are generally held at a sports ground outside the city, so I was pleasantly surprised by the discovery and decided to do some basic shopping, but there were more surprises than the goods I was looking for in store, and I ended up savouring the atmosphere only.
Classy food stalls
I pretend to be quite an expert on Italian markets, but as with all aspects of life in Italy there are wide regional differences. The market in Bolzano at least was not the place to look for toothpaste, milk and potatoes. The classy food stalls showcased a wide selection of local specialties like cooked ham, speck, and “Kaminwurzen”, which is another smoked sausage from Alto Adige.
There were several bakery stalls selling various kinds of bread, strudel and oversized pretzels. And the neatly displayed fruit and vegetables were generally organic – and fairly high priced – when you looked at them from a Puglian point of view.
The food market in Bolzano was a perfect place to stock up on token specialties and edible souvenirs, but not an open air supermarket for budgetwise household shopping.
Snapshots from the Saturday morning market in Bolzano.
No cheap textiles
I decided to leaf through some dresses instead, though I could have told myself that the people in Bolzano were too wealthy and quality conscious to look for textiles in the street. I did find some artisan craft stalls selling earrings, leather belts, mobiles and printed t-shirts, but there were none of the usual unbranded jeans, shoes and suits you find in heaps down south.
I ended up adjusting my expectations over a nice cappuccino in a side street off Piazza Walther. So next time I go market shopping in Bolzano, I’ll know what to look for.
More on Trentino – Alto Adige
Bolzano and the magic Italian traffic mirrors
What a wonderful market it must be. I loved the emarkets in Italy, and I sincerely wish we had them here in the U.S. Thanks for the reminder!
Wish we had more of them in Denmark as well, but market shopping is very time consuming. I suppose that’s why some of us long for markets stalls while we’re stuffing our trolley at the supermarket.
I think it’s too cold for too much of the year to have markets in Scandinavia, at least the everyday/every week kind of markets.
That’s one of the reasons I keep going to Italy all the time. Although we now have a posh covered market in Copenhagen.
I think it’s easy just to assume that markets are cheap, when just like everywhere else it pays to comparison shop. Glad you at least got a nice cup of cappuccino out of it.