If you are visiting Modena, even if just for a day, a visit to the Albinelli Market (the town’s food market) is something you shouldn’t miss.

Want to combine a visit to the Albinelli Market with a cooking class?

Market Tour and Cooking Class: make a pasta and tiramisu with fresh ingredients from the market

This indoor market, considered one of the most beautiful in Italy, is almost a hundred years old.

Modena is a very lively town, with the squares and outdoor restaurants full of people.

The Albinelli Market is equally lively, with thousands of people visiting it every week. Inside, you will find people shopping for vegetables, mushrooms, flowers, cheese, balsamic vinegar, and more. And not just that, but you can eat at the Albinelli Market as well.

Eating at the Albinelli Market

This food market is actually the place where we had lunch the day we spent in Modena.

There were several restaurant stalls that offered lunch. Food included tortellini, panini, different kinds of ciccheti (like tapas, for example, small toasts with cheese or salami), etc. They also sold food by weight, in case you wanted a bigger dish, like a lasagna, or a fresh capresse di bufala.

There was also a pizza stand that had many different kinds of pizzas. But the great thing is that it is not the same as other pizzas you will find in Modena. It’s made of sourdough and they use some fine grains.

You can also just go for a glass of wine or a beer, and order a couple of side dishes.

The food looked great everywhere. And the good thing is that there’s enough place to sit, but make sure to be there early. We visited on a Saturday at 1pm, and even though there were already a lot of people, there were still a few free tables.

They do charge a 2 euro coperto, though, which was the first time we had seen that at a market!

Finding Vegetarian Food at the Albinelli Market

Still, with all the great fresh food that they offered, we didn’t really find a great selection of vegetarian options at the restaurant stalls. We did find vegetarian pizzas, but since we were in Modena, a place with such a great cuisine, we wanted to try something else.

So since my partner and I are both vegetarians, we decided to keep looking around the market.

That was a great decision. Around the middle alley, towards the back of the market, away from the restaurants, there’s a stall which sells fresh produce, but also food by weight, and everything they had was vegetarian. They can warm it up for you and there are a couple of tables close by where you can eat (and no coperto charge there!).

We had a delicious asparagus lasagna and parmigiana di melanzane (eggplant parmigiana). They had lots of other options, like different kinds of vegetable polpette, quiches and more. Even Sicilian arancine! like the ones you can get in the Palermo Street Food Market.

What can you buy at the Modena Food Market?

Basically, at the food market in Modena, you can find all food-related items. As we walked around the market we thought about how delicious we would eat every day if we lived in Modena.

There are huge stalls with all kinds of cheese, where you can even get top-class Parmesan cheese since Parma is so close by. There were 24, 36, and even 60 month old Parmesan! The old Parmesans are so good. Nothing compared to the normal Parmesan cheese you get in the supermarket! You will immediately notice the quality difference in the taste, plus the texture is soft and crumbly.

Of course, there are all kinds of fruits and vegetables as well. Fresh and bright eggplants, tomatoes, zucchinis, all kinds of herbs…

There were lots of varieties of fresh and dried mushrooms, including some delicious truffles.

And so much other stuff! Lots of flowers, fresh pasta, organic teas, and more.

Being in Modena, of course there was at least one stand in the Albinelli market dedicated just to balsamic vinegar. The seller let us taste different kind of vinegars, each having been aged for a different amount of time, so they all had different tastes. They also sold a thick balsamic syrup, which people use for different things, such as to top pancakes or ice creams.

And if you are traveling and are only carrying hand luggage, they can even pack it and send it to you directly home! It can be a great souvenir from Italy.

But since you are in Modena, I absolutely recommend you go visit a balsamic vinegar producer to learn all about the balsamic secrets. You will even taste flavored vinegars that will most likely be totally new for you, such as truffle or raspberry-flavored balsamic vinegar.

Read here about my visit to the oldest balsamic producer in Modena.

History of the Modena Food Market

There used to be a very ancient market open-air market in the city, but the present one dates back to 1931. At that time, the street vendors gathered around the Piazza Grande, but the flow of people was becoming too large.

The authorities considered it was becoming too chaotic, so they began building a big indoor market, the present-day Albinelli market.

They gave great importance not just to the order, but also to hygiene. The authorities also guaranteed that every stand had flowing water, they made the floors in a way that could be easily cleaned, and made sure the fishmongers had marble counters.

They connected the coumns with iron volutes, and to make it prettier, they adorned it with a statue. This is the “little girl with a fruit basket”, which you will see at the center of the market.

What are the opening hours of the Albinelli market?

The food stalls at market open Monday to Friday from 7am to 5pm. On Saturday, it opens from 7am to 7pm. It’s closed on Sundays though, so if you want to visit the fresh produce stalls, make sure to visit any other day!

The restaurant stalls have different opening hours. You will find them open Monday to Sundays from 12pm to 3pm, and then later in the evening form 6:30pm to 11pm.