A Saturday in Milan

The weather has continued to be nice here in Milan and I took the opportunity to head over to one of the local Saturday markets to start my shopping this past weekend. Caitlin had been raving about her market finds and this week I decided to tag along with her.

The weekend markets here can often replace your entire grocery store trip. The markets have multiple fruit and vegetable stands, meat and cheese stands, vendors selling eggs, and others selling household goods.

But I've not always loved the markets I've experienced before. I have frequently felt like I wasn't getting the best of the available produce, as many items I purchased were overly ripe or bruised. At these markets, you generally don't pick out your own produce. You wait in a line, tell the vendor what you want and they select it and bag it for you. Touching things with your own hands, is well, a big faux pas in Italy. I think the trick to this is being a regular customer, one that the vendor recognizes from week to week and one that they want to keep coming to their stand.

This market is located on Via Tabacchi near Bocconi.

I bought a bunch of vegetables and fruit to enjoy this week and also bought some flowers to add some spring colors to my apartment.

In my vase from my trip to Cinque Terre back in 2012. 

this week's haul

Later in the day, a few of us met near the Duomo to head out to a Craft Brew Fest that we had heard about happening this weekend.

It was quite a trek to he beer festival, but I'm so glad we went. It was great and definitely a better experience than the wine festival I attended a few weeks back. First, the cost to get in is only 8 euro and this includes the glass and the wine bag to hold your glass. Then you buy tokens by the euro to sample the beers. Each token gives you a 10 cL sample of the beer of your choice. This allows you to try a lot of beers without committing to a full size glass of one. I bought 10 euro worth of tokens and this was plenty for me. You could also use the tokens for the food stand, held in a room off to the side.

the tokens for sampling the beer!

Haven't you always wanted to hang your glass of beer around your neck?

a cinnamon double ale we sampled

Some of the logos and slogans from the event.

Harris and Jesye ready to sample!

For those who want to go next year: To get to the beer festival, you need to take either the 12 or 27 tram to Via Mecenate. The 12 stops a little short and you can walk the rest or you can take the 27 and get pretty close. Both trams have a stop on Via Mazzini near the Duomo where you can pick up either one.