From North to South, you find a food market in every dusty corner of Italy. Indoor, open air, liberty, temporary, gourmet, gentrified, dirty, harsh, noisy. Surely never boring.

​This is my selection of the 5 best food markets I’ve met during my food trips.

Bologna is a market. It was in the past and it is nowadays. We start all our Bologna food tours in Piazza Maggiore because it was a market, but now it’s Quadrilatero the beating heart of our food scene.

A nest of tiny streets with signs of the past on the walls and family shops owned by generations.
Definitely one of the best food markets to visit in Bologna.

What to buy
Save space in your luggage for a mortadella from Simoni or its hidden brother salame rosa. 
Or get a quality knife at Aguzzeria del cavallo, one of the oldest shop of Bologna. 

Where to eat
Get a tagliere of cold cuts at Romanzo inside Mercato di Mezzo and ask to include boar mortadella.
​If you’re not in a hurry, you can go at Sfogliarina and wait in line for a cheap and well made fresh pasta.

Info
Open Monday to Saturday, 8 am – 6 pm
Enter from Piazza Maggiore or Via Rizzoli.

Bologna and Modena, enemies in the past, neighbours with the passion for food today.
​Albinelli indoor market is a liberty jewel still unknown by mass tourists where old ladies with their trolley are the queens of the kingdom.

What to buy
You can’t leave Modena without Balsamic vinegar and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
During our Modena food tour we dig deep and tell you how to choose them properly (and not overpay for them).

Where to eat
​Chiara and Sara make the best sandwich in Modena at their Bar Schiavoni. The menu changes daily, but ask for cotechino and you won’t regret it.

Info
Via Luigi Albinelli, 13, 41100 Modena MO
Tel. + 39 059 211218Open Monday to Saturday, 6:30 am – 2:30 pm
www.mercatoalbinelli.it

Less famous than its brother San Lorenzo, for sure more alive. Sant’Ambogio is an indoor market far from the aprons with Michelangelo’s David.
​If you’re looking for another Firenze, made of farmers and family business, you should head here.

What to buy 
Locals call it just bistecca (the steak), but fiorentina works too. Ask for it at Macelleria Menoni, opened in 1921 and owned by the same family for 3 generations.

Where to eat 
Inside the market there’s Rocco and his rough cuisine and wine to share.
Get the best street food of Firenze: panino al lampredotto in a food truck called Pollini just outside the market.
​For a more fancy lunch, il Cibreo by the theatrical chef Fabio Picchi waits for you.
​Here’s a list of other remarkable places to eat in Florence.

Info
Piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti, 50122 Firenze FI
Tel. +39 055 248 0778
​Open Monday – Saturday, 7 am to 2 pm
www.mercatosantambrogio.it

Testaccio is a genuine Roman neighbourhood with a pyramid, a slaughterhouse and a British cemetery full of artists.
Its old market was moved in 2012 in a modern and healthiest structure.
​Buy fresh artichokes and eat pizza romana in the indoor market and take a tour of the archaeological area under its floor.

What to buy
Samuele at Libreria del Mercato sells old books but also t-shirts and bags with original prints by her wife.
At NAT – Home Decor you find vintage furniture and artworks carefully selected by Barbara.

Where to eat
Think about the classics of Roman cuisine and push them into a sandwich. That’s the spirit of Mordi e Vai. Hard to choose between picchiapò (boiled meat with pepper), Scottona (tender beef meat) or artichokes and Roman Pecorino cheese

Info
Entrance from via Beniamino Franklin, via Alessandro Volta, via Aldo Manuzio, via Lorenzo Ghiberti.
​Open Monday to Saturday, 7 am to 3:30 pm
www.mercatoditestaccio.it

You’re sat under an elephant and you hear screaming men wielding big knives .
Relax, you’re not on the set of Apocalypse Now 2 but at Catania fish market.
​Hard to describe with words the noise, smell and atmosphere of an open-air theatre where fish is the main star.

What to buy
Unless you travel with a refrigerator in your bag, it will be hard to bring home some fish.
Don’t give up.
​Get Bronte’s pistachio (in autumn, where they are fresh) or dried fava beans in the stalls of Piazza Pardo.
​The price is never the one you read on the label!

Where to eat
Mm is both trattoria and street food for a fast lunch. Try their crazy carbonara with turmeric, mussel, bottarga and lemon peel. Scirocco lab offers fried fish cones until late night.

Info
Piazza Alonzo di Benedetto, Piazza Pardo
Open Monday to Saturday, 5 am – 2 pm

---

It happened again. This time in Modena. This time on Netflix. This time with Phil Rosenthal.
After BBC episode with Rick Stein in Bologna, I ended up working for Netflix show Somebody feed Phil.
​
The episode in Northern Italy was shot in September 2017, and me and Caterina, my food guide in Modena, were that somebody. Join us behind the scenes?

I met Phil Rosenthal’s happy blue eyes at the entrance of Mercato Albinelli food market.

​Caterina, born and raised in Modena (I think she has Balsamic vinegar instead of blood) took him by hand for a TV version of our Modena food tour. 
Cheese and chicken, pasta and wine, smiles and gags. Phil seemed like a kid at Disneyworld. ​But here Micky Mouse has the face of Andrea, the master of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and Daisy Duck is Marisa, an old pasta maker that prepares everyday handmade tortellini.

A local bar, the one with students reviewing their homework before a test. Or business men in a suit having a sandwich in a hurry during lunch break. A bar with uncomfortable metal chairs and the coffee machine always grumbling.

That’s were I sat with Phil and Caterina, in front of the camera, to taste one of the most delicious breakfast in Italy.

Gnocco fritto is a fried soft bread typical of Modena. You can have it for lunch and dinner with ham and cheeses.
But also for breakfast, sipped inside a hot cappuccino.
​It may sound weird, but it’s not the strangest thing you taste during our food tours.
​
Phil looked surprised but didn’t miss a bite of this unusual breakfast (we actually had it at 5 pm). 

I don’t know if this part or any of the previous will end up in the final episode, that will cover other cities in Northern Italy like Venice, Mantua and Ferrara. 

But 2 things I know for sure. 

​First that Phil Rosenthal isn’t only a great comedian, but also a fantastic person able to immediately bound with people, just with a smile. 
And then I’m 100% sure he asked for a green salad for dinner, after such a intense food marathon.

Somebody feed Phil – Season 2 will be aired on spring 2018 on Netflix.
Premiere date is still unknown, but I will keep the post updated.

---

It took a while but it’s here. After 3 years of tasting in Bologna, it’s time to look forward to a new adventure. 
“The food of Modena” is a brand new food tour in Modena born with with the passion and love of all the people around Taste Bologna which I can only thank for being that special. Let’s see what’s inside this new food tour.

For those of you who had our of our food tours in Bologna, you probably remember me talking about the huge fight between Bologna and Modena, not only figurative but real wars that happened during middle age (the very famous “War of the Bucket”). Those cities had been enemies for centuries and, even if their food traditions have the same roots, they have been accomplished in different ways. So except for tortellini (which if you ask a bolognese they were born in Bologna, if you ask a modenese they are from Modena of course), in Modena you can find a completely different range of amazing foods typical of this city that you can’t find in Bologna. 

“The Food of Modena” tour is a nice stroll in the city centre to find where the best food of Modena is hidden. One must-stop is at Mercato Albinelli, one of the most beautiful food markets I’ve ever visit, where usually Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana goes shopping: if you’re lucky you can meet the best chef in the world buying fresh mushrooms between the stalls. With 5 tasting pit-stops in small and historical shops you discover not only great food but people and their stories.

It can’t be a real Modena food tour without Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale and Parmigiano Reggiano. For both of them you have a tasting of multiple agings and qualities so you can taste how time and passion can change the flavours. What else? I don’t want to spoiler too much but in Modena locals have a really unique and rich breakfast that you can’t miss and if you haven’t heard about tigelle you will have a new food addiction after the tour. 

I can only say that it took more than a year to create this tour. You know how much I love Bologna and at the beginning I was sceptic about touring in Modena, because I wanted to create a new tour only if I could grant the same quality I can offer in Bologna. After a lot of research and, most of all, the help of friends a local foodies I’m 100% sure that if you loved our Bologna Food tours, “The Food of Modena” will surprise you.

---