Mercato di Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II
Every morning except Sunday, the broad, arcaded Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II transforms into Rieti's main produce market, where farmers from the surrounding Sabina hills arrive with crates of olive oil, pecorino, truffles and seasonal vegetables. It's the most honest snapshot of what people in this part of Lazio actually eat.
What to Look For
The Sabina DOP extra-virgin olive oil sold here is among the most prized in Italy — pale gold, grassy and peppery — and you can buy it directly from the producer for a fraction of supermarket prices. Ask vendors which grove the oil comes from and most will happily tell you the exact hillside.
In autumn, stalls overflow with porcini mushrooms gathered from the Terminillo forests and small, intensely fragrant truffles from the Leonessa plateau. A handful of vendors also sell dried legumes — cicerchie and roveja — that have almost vanished from Italian cooking elsewhere.
Beyond the Produce
The covered section of the market, tucked under the 19th-century arcades, holds a handful of butchers selling lamb and goat from local farms — the raw ingredients for the slow-cooked abbacchio dishes Rieti's trattorias do so well.
Grab a cornetto and a cappuccino from one of the bars flanking the piazza and eat standing up at the counter like a local. The market buzz — crates clattering, vendors calling prices, the smell of fresh herbs — makes for a genuinely immersive start to the day.
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