Market Day in Sorrento

Sorrento
4 ottobre 2011

Browsing a Campanian market ...

Despite the advance of chain supermarkets and clothing stores in even medium-sized Italian towns, every town still has its weekly market.  We've looked for the market in Sorrento on other trips here, but couldn't find it -- and when we asked Sorrentines about it, they'd point us to the nice shops in the neighborhood, seeming not to know what we were asking for (I really did look up the proper Italian phraseology, so I'm pretty sure I was asking for the correct thing).  We figured it's part of the overall effort to have Sorrento be a terrific tourist town, with none of that messy Italian provincial flavor (not such a great plan, in our eyes).

On this trip, however, one of the maps we picked up at the tourist office at the Foreigners Club had a little square on the uphill side of town marked "weekly market."  The same map actually had the market day listed as well.  Hooray! We figured the era of secrecy must be over.

We made the slow climb up the hill to a large, level parking area - and the market.  There is a part of every market that is basically the same - lots of inexpensive seasonal clothes, bags, shoes, underwear. For most tourists, that's reason enough to visit one or two on a trip, but not to feel any necessity to explore one in every city. 

For us, though, we weren't interested in what was staying the same -- but in what was different from place to place.   What changes from city to city - or, to be more specific, region to region -  is the food -- and particularly the cheeses.  In Campania (the region of the city of Sorrento), the local cheese is the buffalo milk mozzarella -- and it was displayed in its many varieties.

Pictures of the mozzarella and other market snapshots below: 

Fresh (as in made this morning) mozarella - bagged w/ water to keep it fresh:

 

Mozarella Salata - aged - (more like what Americans put on pizza) next to the fresh bread stand:

 

 
If I could've managed to transport it home, I think I would have gotten one of the antique sewing machines:

 

Fabrics and notions:

Sweets by the kilo:

Flowers for your window boxes...

 

Herbs and lettuces for your winter garden...

The season's last tomatoes grown in that rich, volcanic soil...

Cookies by the 100 grams...

And olives, always olives ...

 

Comments

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