An evocative and strangely nostalgic place that I visit over and over again in Sicily – and get up before 7am for – is the historic food market of Ortigia, the old part of Syracuse, on the east coast. Held every morning except Sunday, it is everything one expects an Italian market to be: there is always a lot of shouting and gesticulating and wonderful (as well as less wonderful) smells. It is sells authentic produce, much of it from the region: herbs, tomatoes, ripe blood-red oranges, deep purple aubergines, bright red chilli peppers and lemons. All are fresh, and cut up while you’re waiting, and there are stalls of local meats and seafood – a swordfish might eye you as you walk past.
But though it is so authentic, the place continues to reinvent itself. New types and shapes of cheeses emerge from time to time, such as a cute pig-shaped cheese, only made on special occasions, and giant colourful sandwiches. Caseificio Borderi is a small sandwich shop in the market offering rolls filled with cured meats, cheeses and fresh salads, and queues trail round the corner at lunch times. It is now the place to go for Syracuse’s student population.
This type of animated market was common in Sicily’s big cities until fairly recently. The best-known ones are probably those in Palermo – the Ballarò and the Vucciria, which was immortalised in a painting by Renato Guttuso but unfortunately has been left to die. This hasn’t happened in Syracuse, however – maybe because of large tour groups that navigate the market’s one small windy street. That’s a good reason to go early: to precede the crowds and to experience the market untainted.
• Dirk Booms is co-curator of Sicily: Culture and Conquest, at the British Museum, which opens today, 21 April, and runs until 14 August
