European Food Markets Are a Visual Feast

Having spent several days in the past week cruising the western Mediterranean — Italy, France and Spain — on Costa’s new flagship, the Diadema, I’ve been able to reacquaint myself with some of my favorite sights in Europe: outdoor food markets.

For my taste, there’s nothing like a food market in Europe, where the vegetables, fruit, meat, seafood, sweets and everything else look so tempting that I’m ready to load up my shopping bag even if I have nowhere to cook or even time to eat them.

Here is a small sampling from one of my favorite European markets, in Barcelona, Spain, right off the famed boulevard, Las Ramblas. While the market is covered, its sides are open to the outdoors.

The market’s seafood looks like it was caught that morning — because it was.

Fruta — looks good enough to, well, eat.

Chili peppers, among other items.

Nuts!

Meat and cheese.

Dessert, perhaps.

Fresh juices to drink, in a variety of flavors.

And that wraps up our mini-tour of the Barcelona market — I’d shop there every day if I could. But it’s just one of hundreds of European food markets that are equally enticing.

All photos by Clark Norton