Navigating the Market in Italian

One of the pillars of daily Italian life can also be one of the most harrowing experiences for the uninitiated, a veritable minefield of potential cultural faux pas that can earn you anything from a stern glance to a long, angry diatribe. If you think I’m talking about Sunday Mass, you’re wrong. I’m talking about the market (il mercato).

Italians do food markets extremely well and almost every town has at least one weekly market (mercato settimanale); most cities have a n