The Sicilian Garlic Lady

The Sicilian garlic lady sits focused on her job of braiding garlic despite all the busyness crowding the open air market around her.

Drive through small Italian towns on weekends and it’s easy to find these open air markets, or what we call “farmers’ markets,” bursting with amazing foods and goods of every kind. Locals check out every booth looking for the best buys while chatting with neighbors.

Individual vendors fill their tables with tempting items such as homemade cheeses, dried and fresh sausages of every kind, marinated olives and mushrooms, cookies, cakes, plump homegrown produce and beautiful crusty loaves of bread and foccaccia.

Italians take home sacks filled with staples for the week. We tourists take home memories of aromas, visions, and local Italian market ambience that stay with us forever.