Food Markets: In the Belly of the City

Meandering through the lively city of Palermo in Sicily, the almost one-thousand-year-old Ballarò open-air street market is a true hidden wonder which throbs with activity around the busy Piazza Carmine in the old part of the town.

The renovated Old Market Hall, or Vanha Kauppahalli, is a magnificent 19th-century building, and Helsinki's oldest indoor food market crammed with exotic delicacies, Finnish baked goods, and tasty cold meats that are impossible to resist.

The spacious and completely refurbished Mercado da Ribeira, or the Time Out Market, with the iron interior and the large central dome is a bustling with people traditional food market where one can discover Lisbon's best under one roof.

The Viktualienmarkt developed from an original farmers' market to a popular market for gourmets. But the center of the social life of the city is the world-famous Biergarten - here the seven historical breweries of the city pour the finest beers of the world.

Located between Ferdinand Bolstraat and Van Woustraat in the colorful De Pijp neighborhood of Amsterdam, the busy Albert Cuyp Market is one of the oldest food bazaars in town with a delightful abundance of local bites.