Vucciria and other markets, Palermo

The markets of Palermo definitely have the air of North Africa about them. The 2 main ones are La Vucciria and Mercato di Capo. La Vucciria centred around Piazza San Domenico spreads into the side streets in all directions. Fresh fish, meat, and recently harvested produce like wild fennel, artichokes and blood oranges are in abundance.
Mercato do Capo spreads out from Chiesa Sant.Agostino with clothing stalls, leather goods and, of course, the ever present fish,meat, fruit and vegetables.
It's great to just meandre the streets chomping away on panelle or calzoni.

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A nice place to do everyday shopping, especially if you you cook for yourself. Fish and seafud in abundance. Also quite a wide choice of fruit and vegetables. I concentrated on spices. A friend recommended to us a kind of really hot dried red pepper. The fruit were very small, about a centimetre long but they were so spicy I couldn't use it at all. My friend, however, who loves everything that's spicy, loved them.

The markets of Palermo are cramed full of all the fruit, vegtables, fresh fish, cheese and oils. All of the best quality and very cheap prices. It's also a generally friendly atmosphere and a great place to start the day, get all the smells in your lungs as early as you can.

Take time in Palermo to explore the side streets and in particular the street markets, where you’ll get a close-up look at daily life in the city. We enjoyed a wander through Vucciria market, which runs parallel to via Roma (starting from the Piazza San Domenico). Of course in this port city there were wonderful displays of fresh fish, and the vegetables and fruit also looked fantastic. There are also hardware stalls and others with various essentials, and the overall atmosphere was somewhat middle-eastern, reflecting the city’s very mixed cultural heritage.

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take a ride in La Vucciria (where is the daily market, near Piazza San Domenico) after the sunset.
You can stop to take some pics but do not switch off the engine :-)
Someone can find this place a little scary.

Vuccirìa is the largest and most popular market street in Palermo.
This is a great casbah-like markets, with mountains of food ranging from fresh swordfish steaks to all sorts of meat and recently harvested produce, reflecting the bounty of the Sicilian countryside. The array of such items as wild fennel, long-stemmed artichokes, blood oranges, and giant octopus will astound you.
This market trades Monday through Saturday until 2pm. Try to go before 10am, when it's at its most frenetic and colorful.

A very lively market in the heart of the quarter La Vucciria with stalls selling vegetable, fruit, meat, fish and what have you. We sort of happened to land here on our way back to our car, but couldn't stop to linger around and savour the mediterranean aromas and watch the business of the traders.

LA VUCCIRIA
La Vucciria is a Palermo's colourful market . If you leave Piazza Marina with the sea behind you you'll reach Corso Vittorio Emanuele, just before Via Maqueda on the right you should see (hear and smell) the market once immortalised by the painter Renato Guttuso. Here the colours, flavours and voices of Palermo come together in a sensual medley second to none. Stall-holders will try to entice you to buy their wares - from freshly caught fish to luscious vegetables and pungent spices. Food stalls sell an array of sandwiches filled with just about anything you can fry: panelle, chickpea fritters, aubergines, octopus - the list is endless. If you prefer to sit while you're eating try the 'Trattoria Shanghai', which, despite its Chinese name, serves traditional Sicilian food. As you sit supping overlooking the market you'll be forgiven for thinking you're in the middle of Shanghai, or Casablanca or......

Palermo has a rich artisan production. For example the production of artistic ceramics and of sicilian puppets and carts, copper and tin works in VIA CALDERAI, the making of chestnut wood and rush baskets near THE CALA and wrought-iron articles. A visit to the flea market (MERCATO DELLE PULCI), to browse among antique and modern and antique knick-knack, is of great interest. The confectioners offer many delicious cakes with ricotta cream (cannoli, casate etc.) and also cakes made from marzipan, the delicious marzipan fruits called 'frutti di martorana' and around all soul's Day, the socalled 'pupi a cera' these include knights, ladies and other figures made of sugar wich are offered to children during festivities.