3 Best Places to Shop in Little Italy, Montreal

This is the biggest and liveliest of the city's public markets. On weekends in summer and fall, crowds swarm the half-acre or so of outdoor produce stalls, looking for the fattest tomatoes, sweetest melons, and juiciest strawberries. Its shops also sell sausage, fish, cheese, bread, pastries, and other delicacies. Early in the morning you might rub elbows with the city's top chefs. The market is in the northern end of the city, but is easy to get to by métro.

The smells of roasting chestnuts and fresh pastries at this market will surely excite your olfactory system. To further delight your senses there are dozens of tiny shops full of Québec cheeses, Lebanese sweets, country pâtés, local wines, and handmade chocolates. Less threatening to the waistline but a feast for the eyes are the huge mounds of peas, beans, apples, carrots, pears, garlic, and other produce on sale at the open-air stands. Visit on weekends during the warm summer months, and it will feel as if all of Montréal has come out to shop. During the holiday season there is a Christmas market, which runs from late November until the 23rd of December.

A huge expansion in 2013 made this local favorite, in business since 1954, even more popular with customers, who form long lines for prepared foods at the takeout counter. There's a vast selection of cheeses, oils, vinegars, and baked goods. For some elbow room, go during the week.