Piazza dei Frutti Site Features

The square is defined by one building it does not contain: the long northern flank of the Palazzo della Ragione, whose ground-floor shops open onto it and whose bulk separates it from Piazza delle Erbe on the far side.

The remaining sides are arcaded houses of no single date, rebuilt piecemeal over centuries, which is why the square reads as workaday rather than composed.

At its centre stands the column known as il Peronio, topped by a stone that marked the standard measures traders were required to sell by -- market regulation as street furniture.

The morning fruit market

Stalls from early until early afternoon, Monday to Saturday. Smaller and calmer than Erbe's.

The Peronio

The 16th-century column in the square, a survival of the days when markets were also where sentences were announced.

The Palazzo's north flank

The long arcaded side of the Palazzo della Ragione forms one entire edge of the square, with Sotto il Salone's shops beneath it.

The square sits immediately north of the Palazzo della Ragione, sharing that building with Piazza delle Erbe on the far side. Arcaded houses close the other three edges, and Piazza dei Signori is a minute west.

The two squares are best understood as one space interrupted by a building, and walking through the arcade from one to the other takes about thirty seconds.