Market Day in Umbertide

Visit almost any Italian town and you will find a tradition as old as the Roman empire. Find a spot at the coffee bar, have your cappuccino and cornetto, and peek into this window on everyday Italian life -- Market Day.

The weekly open air market is about much more than shopping. Yes, you can buy fresh seasonal vegetables, artisan cheeses, fresh fish, and cured meats. In spring you can find agretti, in summer juicy peaches and sweet melon. In winter, fresh citrus from the south and local mushrooms await. You can also find housewares, clothing, shoes, plants, sometimes farm animals. Market day is a ritual, where you catch up with friends, bump into neighbors and gossip with favorite vendors. Market day is woven into the fabric of Italian life... especially small town life.

Umbertide's market is on Wednesday mornings from 8am until 1pm, in Piazza Matteotti, the historic center. This piazza is where most of the food vendors are set up, sharing space with two bustling coffee bars. Just outside the piazza at the base of La Rocca (the tower) the bulk of the market spreads along the city walls and into the shaded parking lot across the street. This is where you find those twenty euro linen dresses and hand cranked pasta machines.

Central Italy is known for porchetta, a slow roasted pig stuffed with fennel, fresh herbs and garlic. On market day there are porchetta trucks on hand to make you a panino, grasso o magro (fat or lean), with crispy skin or, for the daring, some of the liver. (The porchetta man will be impressed when you request liver!) You can also get porchetta sliced to take home.

There is usually good parking behind Piazza San Francesco along the river. Come early and wander town a bit. Window shop your way down to the train station and visit the gelateria across the street. After the market packs up, grab lunch at Locanda Appenino or La Rocca. Experience a slice of everyday life in a small Italian town.