Just about every culture we have visited has an market in the heart of the city. We remember some of them for sensations; the tomatoes in Sicily from a tiny town down the coast from Syracusa, the extraordinary flowers from the greenhouses of Carpenteria in the brilliant sun on a Santa Barbara street corner, the wagons filled with onions from the villages outside of Valparaiso and the gleaming stalls of the vendors in Adelaide. Alicante’s market has the most extraordinary seafood of any we have visited so far…vendors animated. The brilliant colors of fish and crustaceans dazzle. Some stalls are five-deep in customers visiting and waiting their turn.
We want to walk with you through the market seeing it as we did. Enjoy the panorama.
MedFlies 
A great market. But are those prices real? Prawns/shrimp at 46 Euro?? In Adelaide’s central market the equivalent would be about 15 Euro.
Paul, We are so glad you are back! We were concerned when we didn’t hear from you as you are always one of the first to comment. So happy that you are here. Those fish are just as they appeared to us with that deep color. We were musing how the vendors make them shine and sparkle. Prices of eggs are much lower than the US. And yes, the price tags on prawns and shrimp are real!
Thanks Jill, I have been away.
A feast for the eyes (and lots of smells for the nose?!)
Surprisingly, the seafood hall did not smell “fishy.” The market is large, two floors with escalators, and amazingly clean. Quite a contrast to the cacophonous tumult of the Cartagena market.
Great photos!
Glad you visited us and enjoyed them.
Thank you for sharing your photos. We love markets, they carry so much wonderful energy and culture. So much good food, those strawberries! Juno greeted Fantan on the road so all is well on the Lane. Best, Leah
Perfect place for you and Jeff to explore.
Wonderful photos—thank you! If you get a chance, identify the “things” that look like fingers. Also, it’s Siracusa or Syracuse. Not Syracusa. I love their market too—the vendors now have vacuum packing machines so last time I was there, I stocked up on peperoncino, pine nuts, and shelled Bronte pistachios, which are reputed to be the best (greener, sweeter, etc.).
Marty
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In Siracusa (thank you) we made our weekly trip to the market in Ortigia. I still remember the fresh, dark red tomato paste doled out by the paddle full. The “fingers” are pig’s feet.
Ortygia. That tomato paste is made with sun-dried tomatoes. It really makes a difference in cooking. It’s called estratto di pomodoro, and I get it in a jar from a website called Gustiamo. It’s so thick that you have to lighten it with some of the liquid before you add it to a soup or a sauce.
My Italian is now good enough to do all my transactions and to carry on basic conversations—the longer ones require more patience with me than Italians have! I was just in Rome for a week, and had signed up for 5 days of intensive private lessons. I stopped going after the third day (had a cold, and was tired from an intensive week prior in Florence) because I realized that with my hearing deficiency, I will never get to the level of fluency I reached in French. I can’t understand when they are speaking at their normal pace! So I will continue my weekly zoom lessons with my Ithaca pals, and will make gradual progress. AND I’m taking a week of intensive French review in the south of France in September!
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It is always a pleasure to hear of your travels to Italy and progress with Italian. Here,my Spanish is rudimentary at best. I rely on the “kindness of friends” and semaphores.
WOW! What a feast of light, color and contrasts. I love these. Thank you for taking us right there with you. XOXOX
Miss Jill, the post says I can “respond by replying to this email” which is what I am doing. I just can’t seem to get the blog to work for me. Let me know if it works.
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Dede, So glad you liked the walk through the market. The seafood is so shiny and the colors so vivid. I think the vendors keep hosing them down. And the link works perfectly. Keep using it as the way to post.
Were there any items that once seen you just had to try? Or any that made your response something like “not in this life. Or the next”
Derek Simmons retiredinsanclemente@gmail.com
In the “not in this life” category were scrawny whole chicken feet laying in a tub. We think it was in the market in Cuenca. Quite horrifying. Another one in Ecuador was “cui,” guinea pig. They are served whole with head and eyeballs, skinned, basted, roasted and standing up on a platter. We saw one as the waiter carried it through the dining room, on a tray high over his head. We did not order one.