Mercato Orientale — Genoa’s main covered food market since 1899

The Mercato Orientale is the most important covered food market of Genoa, a living ecosystem of greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers, delicatessens and salami makers occupying since 1899 the old cloister of the Consolazione convent, in the very centre of the city, two steps from Brignole. It is not a tamed tourist market: it is the place where every morning Genoese, chefs and students do their real shopping. Since 2019 the upper floor has added the MOG — Mercato Orientale Gastronomico, a food court area with a dozen specialty stalls where you eat (or buy) fish, charcoal-grilled meat, fresh pasta, pizza, sweets. The ground floor preserves the original charm of the neighbourhood market: neon lights on the fruit boxes, vendors’ shouts, dense smells. It is the place to start — or finish — a day of gastronomic discovery in Genoa.

The history: Genoa’s first reinforced concrete building

The Mercato Orientale is born from a council resolution of 21 October 1893: the city needs a stable seat for trading the agricultural products arriving from Val Bisagno, brought by the bezagnini (the farmers of the Bisagno valley) who up to that moment sold in Piazza De Ferrari and Piazza Annunziata. Municipal engineers choose the disused cloister of the Consolazione convent, built between 1684 and 1706, and commission the Porcheddu firm to build the roof. It is the first Genoese work — and one of the first in Italy — built in reinforced concrete with the Hennebique system, an avant-garde French technique. Works finish in July 1898. On 2 June 1899 mayor Francesco Pozzo inaugurates the market with a flower show. Since then it has worked uninterrupted.

The building covers 5,500 square metres. It has an underground floor divided into 42 warehouses (historically used for storage) and a ground floor with a perimeter colonnaded portico of about 360 metres. During the twentieth century the market was the heart of the centre’s food supply, until the 1980s, when supermarket competition reduced active stalls. Since 2015 a redevelopment process has begun, leading to the MOG (upper floor, opened autumn 2019), a food court concept run by a traders’ cooperative combining quick catering, gourmet stalls and events.

What you find on the ground floor (traditional market)

• Fruit and vegetables: seasonal fruit and veg, with particular attention to the Ligurian supply chain — Genoese PDO basil, trombetta courgettes, Albenga asparagus, Vessalico onion, Perinaldo artichokes, Taggiasca olives. The Val Bisagno bezagnini still bring zero-kilometre vegetables.
• Fish: fresh Ligurian catch — anchovies, sardines, squid, gurnard, weever, bonito — and farmed fish. Some stalls offer free filleting.
• Meats and salumi: historic butchers, delicatessens with Sant’Olcese ham, pancetta, lardo, sweet sausage.
• Cheeses: prescinsêua (a Ligurian PAT — Prodotto Agroalimentare Tradizionale — fresh, slightly sour curd cheese used for pesto and savoury pies, made only in Liguria; not a PDO/DOP), Roccaverano tome, robiole.
• Bread, focaccia, fresh pasta: stalls dedicated to hot Genoese focaccia, Recco focaccia, farinata, pansoti, trofie, trenette, corzetti.
• Spices, olives, dried legumes: stalls with Taggiasca olives, capers, salt-cured anchovies, pine nuts, loose dried pulses.
• Flowers and plants: some stalls in the centre of the nave are dedicated to cut flowers and aromatic plants.

Prices are those of a city-centre food market — in line with mid-range supermarkets for fruit and veg, higher on fish and meat (because the quality is superior).

MOG — the gastronomic floor (since 2019)

On the first floor, reachable by stairs and lift, is the MOG — Mercato Orientale Gastronomico: an open space of about 700 sqm with a dozen food+drink stalls, communal tables, a central bar. A hybrid formula between market and restaurant: you order at the counter, pay at the till, sit where you want. The stalls change over time but the bold offering is usually this: raw and cooked fish, grilled meat, fresh pasta, pizza by the slice, Eastern cuisine, focaccia and salumeria, artisanal sweets, gelato. One stall is dedicated to Ligurian and Piedmontese wines by the glass. The formula attracts quick lunches by area workers, evening aperitivos, informal dinners on the weekend. The MOG also organises cultural events, guided tastings and themed dinners. Open 7 days a week, until late at night.

How to reach

The Mercato Orientale is at Via XX Settembre 75, a (partially) pedestrian artery between Piazza De Ferrari and Piazza della Vittoria. The closest metro station is De Ferrari (single line), 5 minutes on foot. From Brignole (FS station + metro line 1) it is 7-8 minutes. For those arriving by car, useful car parks are Piccapietra (3 minutes on foot) and the cluster of Porto Antico Autosilo (10 minutes).

Practical info

• Address: Via XX Settembre 75r, 16121 Genoa
• Ground-floor market: Monday to Saturday 7:30-13:30 / 16:00-19:30 (individual stall hours vary, some close on Saturday afternoon). Sunday closed.
• MOG upper floor: open 7/7, typically 11:00-24:00 (some stalls 18:00-24:00)
• MOG website: mercatoorientale.org
• Accessibility: ground floor accessible, MOG with lift
• Toilets: at the MOG

The bezagnini and the Val Bisagno

The Mercato Orientale exists because, at the end of the nineteenth century, Genoa had a logistical problem: the farmers of the Val Bisagno — the bezagnini — came down every morning to the city with mules loaded with vegetables, fruit, flowers, and sold the goods in Piazza De Ferrari and Piazza Annunziata. It was picturesque but chaotic: the City wanted order, citizens asked for shelter from the rain, hygienists pushed for sanitary regulations. The solution was to redevelop the disused cloister of the Consolazione convent (on Via XX Settembre, the street that was becoming the bourgeois axis of the post-unification city) and to build a covered market there. The bezagnini moved in; the squares became “free” again.

Still today, in the fruit-and-vegetable stalls of the ground floor, you find descendants of those families. Some surnames — Cevasco, Parodi, Grasso, Moreno — repeat over three or four generations. The most typical Val Bisagno products are: PDO basil grown at Prà (not exactly Bisagno, but the same microclimate), Albenga violet asparagus, trombetta courgettes, Perinaldo artichokes, Vessalico white onion, Taggiasca olives, lemons and chinotti from the Ligurian coast.

A morning at the market — itinerary

The ideal time is between 8:30 and 10:30: full stalls, good light, less crowd than peak Saturdays. You arrive from Via XX Settembre, enter from the main entrance. The recommended tour:

1. First “scouting” round: walk the central nave, look at the stalls, identify the fish of the day, the seasonal vegetables, the cheese that strikes you. Don’t buy yet. 10 minutes.
2. Fresh fish: anchovies if it’s the season (April-September), sardines, mackerel, mullet, swordfish. Ask for cleaning/filleting, it is free. Bring a cool bag if you are heading home to eat.
3. Fruit and vegetables: choose a single “trusted” stall (you can recognise them: they have less queue but recurring customers). Buy what is really in season. Avoid stalls that have everything all year round.
4. Butcher: for a roast, ask for capo di girello or cappello del prete. For a boiled meat, muscolo di spalla. For a sliced steak, tagliata di fassona. The butcher cuts and trims for you.
5. Ligurian cheeses: prescinsêua (the only Ligurian PDO, indispensable for savoury pies and “grandma’s” pesto), fresh goat formagetta, cow stracchinello.
6. Salumeria: Sant’Olcese ham sliced, spiced pancetta, Genoese salami, Colonnata lardo.
7. Bread and focaccia: hot Genoese focaccia at the Dugonini stall or one of the 3-4 inside bakers. Farinata on weekdays mid-morning.
8. Sweets: baci di dama, canestrelli, tea biscuits. Or fresh pasta (trofie, trenette, corzetti, pansoti) if you are looking for something for a quick dinner.

Total: about an hour. Typical spend for a family of 4 for 3 days: €60-100. Quality is superior to the supermarket, prices slightly higher but more honest (no chain mark-up).

The MOG — Mercato Orientale Gastronomico

On the first floor, the MOG is the Genoese “answer” to the Milanese and Florentine food halls. Not entirely — it is more authentic, more popular, less Instagram — but it follows the same formula: independent stalls offering different specialities, communal tables in the centre, a central bar with wine and cocktails.

The main stalls (the composition varies over time):

• Raw/cooked fish: tuna slices, prawn skewers, fried fish, oysters at weekends.
• Charcoal-grilled meat: tagliate, gourmet burgers, ribs.
• Fresh pasta: pesto, ragù, pansoti with walnut sauce, trofie al pesto.
• Pizza by the slice: Roman pizza and contemporary Neapolitan.
• Ligurian cuisine: farinata, vegetable pie, minestrone, cappon magro (cold).
• Artisanal sweets: petit-four pastry, gelato.
• Salumeria and cheese: mixed boards, selection with wine.
• Wine bar: Ligurian and Piedmontese wines by the glass (Pigato, Vermentino, Rossese, Gavi).

The formula is informal: order at the counter, sit where you want, eat, clear up. Average spend €15-25 per person for a complete meal. Excellent for evening aperitivos and quick lunches. On weekends the MOG organises themed dinners and guided tastings; the programme is on the website mercatoorientale.org and on the social pages.

What’s around

The Mercato Orientale is in an area rich in other gastronomic and historical points of interest. A few minutes on foot away you find the Romanengo confectionery in Piazza Soziglia, the Bar Pasticceria Klainguti in the same square, the Mangini Pastry Shop at Corvetto. On the other side of Via XX Settembre, towards the Porto Antico, the Antica Friggitoria Carega of Sottoripa has been serving farinata and fritters since 1840. Towards the Carmine you find the other great historic market, the Mercato del Carmine.

To understand what you are tasting, read our guides: the history of pesto, the street food of the caruggi, Genoese sweets.