In the 2nd century A.D., the Emperor Trajan startled Rome's housewives by introducing the revolutionary idea of the covered market. It seemed the last word in shopping, and for the next 18 centuries it was the last word—in Italy. Every weekday morning for those 1,800-odd years, the Italian housewife (or her maid) set out on the same ritualistic, time-consuming round.
For chicken and eggs she went to one shop, for olive oil or wine to another. She could not buy pork where she bought veal. If she wanted sausages, she could not expect to find eggs...
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