Di Buono, Vallehermoso Market

Alessandra sells a type of sausage that she gets from her home village of Aricca—one of the oldest towns on the outskirts of Rome. Her counter is so striking that people almost always stop to take selfies next to it. The secret to the sausage's great taste lies in the fact that the pig is first cut open, de-boned, and cleaned, before being seasoned with garlic, rosemary, olive oil, and black pepper. It is baked for 8 hours, until it has lost 80% of its fat, and does not contain any preservatives or colorings. If you nose around a little more, you’ll see that they also sell “guanciale,” “nduja” (a spicy, spreadable salami, typical of Calabria), craft beers, and wines from small producers located all over the boot-shaped peninsula of Italy and its islands. It’s a little display of Italian products that can be hard to find even in Italy.

A feature of Madrid’s Chamberí neighborhood since 1933, the Vallehermoso Market’s raison d’etre is the same as when it first opened its doors to the public: to sell quality products. However, today it does so under a new business model in which customers can not only shop there, but also go out for tapas, lunch, or dinner at one of its many catering outlets.