The Quadrilatero and the Mercato di Mezzo

The market behind the square

Stand on Piazza Maggiore and face the long arcade of Palazzo dei Banchi on the east side. Behind that facade is the Quadrilatero, Bologna’s old market district: a handful of narrow lanes packed with delis, pasta shops, bakeries, greengrocers and stalls that spill out under the awnings.

Bologna Welcome dates the area’s trading tradition to the Middle Ages and points out that many shops have been handed down through families for generations. The street names still say what was sold where. Via Pescherie Vecchie means the old fish markets. Via degli Orefici is the goldsmiths’ street. Via Drapperie, Via Clavature and Via Caprarie complete the grid, and the regional tourist board says each lane carries the name of a trade practised in it since ancient times.

This page covers the market streets and what to see and buy in them. For sit-down restaurants in and around the area, our where to eat guide names specific places.

What to see and buy

The lanes are short, so walk all of them rather than picking one.

Via Pescherie Vecchie has fruit and vegetable stalls set out under the shop awnings. Via Drapperie holds two of the long-running shops below. Via Clavature runs from the square toward Santo Stefano and holds the Mercato di Mezzo.

A few of the long-running names:

• Tamburini, Via Caprarie 1/a. The family took over a food business that had traded there since 1860 and has run it since 1932. Cured meats and cheeses, with a counter for eating in.
• Paolo Atti and Figli, Via Drapperie 6. A bakery, pastry and fresh-pasta shop run by the same family since the nineteenth century. Sources give different founding years, so we leave it at that.
• Salumeria Simoni, Via Drapperie. A salumeria, which means cured meats, mortadella first among them.

Bologna Welcome also notes a few historic pharmacies in the lanes that have kept the fittings of old apothecaries. They are worth a look even if you buy nothing.

What to take home: mortadella, fresh tortellini and tagliatelle, Parmigiano Reggiano and balsamic vinegar from Modena. Ask for vacuum packing for anything that has to survive a flight. Our answer to what to buy in Bologna goes further.

On Via Clavature, the church of Santa Maria della Vita holds Niccolò dell’Arca’s terracotta Compianto sul Cristo Morto, six life-size figures mourning a dead Christ. It is a few steps off the market streets and a complete change of mood.

The Mercato di Mezzo

At Via Clavature 12, the Mercato di Mezzo is the district’s covered food hall. Its building became Bologna’s first covered market after Italian unification. It stood closed for about six years before a renovation, and reopened on 3 April 2014.

Today it works on three levels. The ground floor has food shops and kiosks around shared tables. Upstairs is a pizzeria, and the basement holds a beer and wine bar. The local health authority, AUSL Bologna, owns the building, and the cooperative Coop Alleanza 3.0 has been the tenant since 2014.

Opening hours are less settled than you would expect. Bologna Welcome lists Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to midnight, with no Sunday hours, while the national tourism portal italia.it says it is open every day of the year. The market has no working website of its own. Check before a Sunday visit.

The hall is not the same as the Mercato delle Erbe, Bologna’s other covered food market, which is a separate building outside the Quadrilatero.

How to get there from Piazza Maggiore

You are already almost there. From the square, walk through one of the two larger central arches in the facade of Palazzo dei Banchi, on the east side, and you drop straight into the lanes. The Mercato di Mezzo is 227 metres from the middle of the square, about three minutes on foot.

From the Quadrilatero it is a short walk on to the Due Torri, or down Via Clavature to the Basilica di Santo Stefano.

When to go

Come in the morning if you want to buy fresh pasta or produce to take away, and later in the day if you are mostly here to eat.

Most shops follow what Bologna Welcome calls normal shop hours, and each sets its own. Tamburini and Paolo Atti both list Sunday opening, so the district does not shut down on a Sunday. Smaller shops set their own hours.

Tips

• Ask before you photograph inside a shop.
• If you want someone to explain what you are eating, a guided food tour spends most of its time in these streets.
• The market is three minutes from the center of town, so a hotel near Piazza Maggiore puts it on your doorstep. See where to stay in Bologna.