GROCERY SHOPPING IN VENICE
We are so lucky to be able to have easy access to fresh, seasonal food all year round in Venice. Many Venetians still shop in a traditional Italian way at street markets and at small locally owned bakeries and delis. Our favourite market is on Friday on Lido island. It’s a small farmers’ market with all the local producers from the lagoon or Veneto. I still find it charming that I have to queue in two different stalls for my cheese: one for cow’s cheese and one for sheep and goats’ cheese. If you manage to get there, we highly recommend the fantastic prosecco sold by Ca’Corner, the amazing range of sheep and goats cheeses, the organic vegetables grown by the farmers from the nearby island Vignole, and the small sopressa stall (a kind of soft salame, typical of Venice). Check out the food section of the blog where we’ll bring you updates on what’s in season and even take you to some of those farms!
We love the fact that we can almost completely skip the large supermarkets and instead buy all our groceries from local sources. If we have to go to the mainland for any reason, we usually do a big shop to stock up on things like pasta and tuna but everything else we get locally.
We buy fish either at Rialto market or from a small truck that arrives to Lido from Pellestrina every day with the last night’s catch. If one of our neighours has been fishing they’ll knock on the door and sell us some cuttlefish or sea bass. The street markets provide an appealing social role too – we get most of the local gossip here. The sellers are chatty and quickly get to know your tastes; they often keep special things aside for us.
The kids love coming to the market too because everyone gives them a little sample of cheese or a banana, so they work there way round the stalls filling up before lunch.
