Il Mercato di Luino — Attraction in Comunità Montana Valli del Verbano

(I hope I'm reviewing the correct venue)

We were on the boat tour to Luino and specifically went on Wednesday so we could visit the "weekly market", which we were told not to miss out on by local tourist information.

Do not come here for the market.

It consisted of 60% clothing stalls that all sold the same!, obviously produced in Asia fashion and 40% food stalls with some fresh produce but mostly dried antipasti, meat, cheese and some pastries.

My issue with the market is as follows:

It is primarily a tourist attraction as underlined by the ridiculously overpriced merchandise and the market-goers all being other tourists.

The stalls felt like copy-paste models from a early 2000s video game, where the budget was just enough to make three stall models, meaning: they all sell the same items over and over again. 50 stalls with IDENTICAL clothing, 50 with identically sourced "homemade" pastry, antipasti, cheese and meat.

It wasn't a pleasant experience, seeing what locals buy and eat, rather it felt like being herded through some cyclical hell while trying to avoid running into other confused tourists.

There was one exception however, in a small corner at the "end" of the market was a food truck selling pizza. It looked as touristy as the rest of the market with the exception that the patrons were overwhelmingly Italian and the turnover rate extremely high. The pizza, as expected...

Came to Luino on a Wednesday for the weekly market. Came especially for this. After walking to town from the brand new big parking lot close to the train station we were walking around the food and produce stalls first.

Ready-to eat food stalls serving sandwiches, fast and fried food, fish, seafood. Not the greatest of qualities - but cheap and cheerful.

The mood and atmosphere was pretty good here, people had fun and the stall owners we met were nice, friendly and not pushy.

Bought some cell phone covers, a whole bunch of scarfs, some summer shirts and dresses, an espresso machine and some nice bathroom and kitchen rugs.

Before leaving we headed back to the food stalls. Shopped some spice mixes (for pasta, steaks and more), dried morels and porcini mushrooms, pear Pecorino (love it), regular salami, truffle salami and spicy salami. The meat and the cheese came from the Tuscany area - delicious stuff.

Of course, there's some cheap stuff, there's some overpriced stuff. But if you bring a bit of time, then you really can get some good stuff and fair deals. We really enjoyed the mercato and were happy with our shopping.

The location in Luino is wonderful, the nearby lake beautiful. A great little town with a great market. We'll be back...

Der Markt in Luino ist ein fester Bestandteil mittwochs und bietet eine facettenreiche Auswahl an Waren, die über verschiedene Straßen und Plätze verstreut sind. Von frischen Lebensmitteln bis hin zu Blumen, Kleidung und Haushaltsgeräten – hier findet man alles. Besonders herausragend sind die Frischkäse- und Wurststände sowie das saisonale Obst und Gemüse. Allerdings gibt es auch eine Überpräsenz an Bekleidung, die sich oft in jedem Stand wiederholt und oft aus preiswerten chinesischen Produkten besteht.

Dies führt zu einem etwas übertriebenen touristischen Touch, da viele Lebensmittel recht teuer sind.

Der Markt zieht viele Touristen an, was leider auch Betrüger anlockt, die gefälschte Parfüms als Originale verkaufen oder Haushaltsgeräte aus China als hochwertige Markenware ausgeben. Es ist daher ratsam, vorsichtig zu sein.

Trotz dieser Herausforderungen ist der Markt in Luino definitiv einen Besuch wert,

Trotz dieser Herausforderungen bietet der Markt in Luino einen Einblick in die lokale Kultur und ist eine Erfahrung, die man während eines Besuchs in der Region nicht verpassen sollte. Allerdings empfiehlt es sich, vorbereitet zu sein und sich bewusst zu sein, dass es sich um einen überlaufenen Touristenmarkt mit höheren Preisen handelt, insbesondere für ältere Menschen, die Freude an traditionellen Märkten haben. Jüngere Besucher könnten sich hingegen schnell langweilen, da das Angebot eher auf eine ältere Altersgruppe...