What a great barrio market! You see, every Italian town/city/village/borough has its own open air…read moremarket, offering from food to clothing. This event takes place twice a week. Streets are closed down, it's just for pedestrians. On Tuesdays, the stands offer mostly fruits and vegetables, fish and poultry and some flowers. Italian street markets are something to visit and preserve like a work of art. Some of the best fish from the Mediterranean are sold here, the best Italian fruits and vegetables, on Saturdays you'll find a food stands selling roast chicken or chicken skewers, nothing fried, no hamburgers or hot dogs, only local street food. These markets are a concentration of good smells, flavors, colors, produce at any price. The quality of fruit and veggies is much higher that what you buy at any supermarket. Local markets are one of the best things in Italy. They should do everything to preserve them. I'm particularly fond of this one, it's my barrio's street market:)

Following our visit to the Cascina St. Andrea, we soldiered on back down to Chieri to visit this…read moreestablishment. You will need to follow the map, because if you are coming from where we were, you will only see the sign pointing to the vineyard in your mirror after you have gone past it; a delightful bit of latino logic. So there you will find this vineyard, which has an immaculately fitted out sales area/cum museum above the cellars. A very friendly young lady (Enrica - the daughter of the proprietor) took us on a guided tour to show us around the vast collection of wine jugs, just a tiny part of which is depicted above. There was in fact one from Royal Doulton there which looked desperately bland by comparison with the vividly coloured local vessels. The tour continued to demonstrate the bottling, corking and capsuling machines and down to the depths where the juice is fermenting. A delightful taste of their brew followed. But they do not only sell their own Freisa di Chieri wine, they also sell the Freisa d'Asti from Angelo Turco's Cascina S. Andrea http://www.qype.co.uk/place/248634-Cascina-S-Andrea-Castelnuovo-Don-Bosco . Then again, not a surprise and hardly really a competitive situation, since Enrica is engaged to be married to aforesaid Angelo! In fact, upon our arrival, the young lady's dog yelped wildly with enthusiasm upon sniffing La Contessa's feet and apparently picking up a whiff of Cascina S.Andrea. The big question locally is whether, upon marrying, Enrica will move up into the hills to the Cascina S. Andrea, or whether Angelo will move down to bustling Chieri. Watch this space! And if you're passing the Borgarella then do pop in. It would be rude not to.

This little shop will have everything you need- maybe not a lot of choices, but they will cover…read moreeverything from TP to freshly made ( delicious) sandwiches. We spent 3 weeks in this town and got to know many of the vendors and this place was, by far, such a pleasure to come and shop. The family who runs it is very accommodating, speak English ( for all the American and British travelers who come here) and carry so many authentic Italian products. We even purchased several jars of one sauce to take back to CA. One of the best parts of this place is Sunny, the young woman who works there- what a pleasant, helpful and kind person. She will make you want to come back and shop here just to have her help you. I hope she gets some credit for the good work she does there.

Macelleria Salumeria is a cute, local shop that says meats, cheeses, and accompanying sauces,…read morespreads, breads, wines, and other odds and ends. The married shop owners, Enriqio and Annarita, are so friendly and were both so patient with us. Annarita's English is good and fluent and I had to do some combination of gesturing and guessing with Enriqio. We ended up coming here three times for salami sandwiches. We told Annarita the rough specifications: focaccia, Milanese salami, a medium cheese and sun dried tomatoes, and they made it happen. It cost about the same as a subway sandwich but we felt we got so much more! Delicious and great service. We will be back!

On our short trip to Milano We had the chance to stop by…read morethis place to a small bite with the family. Close by the train station is a big building that holds diversity for food to try. The place is chic and hectic , good illumination and several options to try We opted for sampling hot sandwiches with capuchino (was very cold that day) Everything was delicious and portion generous for our group of 4. You can find Italian and international food Gelatos and wine and cocktails all under the same roof People were nice to explain and help us to select our food in English since none of us speak Italian. And was easy to order and get the food we wanted.

Amazing food hall chain that is in so many cities! Every city we went to we stopped at a Mercado…read moreCentrale for a snack or a quick bite. They have a variety of options and everything we got we would get again! It's so hard to not stop by! Service at each location is great! Some places will give samples. Prices are reasonable! You order the food and then pick it up and grab a seat. Tons of seatings available for small or large groups. The food hall is super clean! Would recommend coming here!