Piazza delle Vettovaglie
Sixteenth-century arcaded market square where a stone measure once let shoppers check they weren't cheated.
This guide to Piazza delle Vettovaglie in Pisa centers on a stone slab under the southern arcade, its surface still notched with the market's official measures, so any shopper could check a merchant's grain or fish against it. It traces the square back to fourteen ninety-three, when the Opera del Duomo, the body that had built Pisa's cathedral, decided to move the old grain market off the site once known as the pig market, and to Cosimo the First's order to build the arcades that still stand. Along the way it asks what it meant for the city's fair-trade guarantee to answer to the same institution behind the cathedral. Run your finger along the grooves under the southern arcade to feel the yardstick shoppers once trusted.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.