As we reported earlier, the Santa Lucia Fair in Bologna opened the season of Christmas markets in Italy today, so we chose mercato for our Word of the Week – market.
Mercato can also be used in the diminutive form - mercatino; this is especially used to refer to Christmas markets - i mercatini di Natale.
Italians love to shop at open-air markets - mercato all'aperto, where they can pick fresh fruit and vegetables and other gourmet Italian food.
On the other hand, when they need to go grocery shopping at the supermarket, they go to il supermercato.
If you need to go shopping for food, read this useful article from our Language section.
The idiomatic expression a buon mercato means cheap. Comprare a buon mercato = to buy something at a low price.
Now watch the famous "mercato" scene from "Mamma Roma", the 1962 film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, starring Anna Magnani:
