Blog

If you love holidays in the French Riveria, you might want to try going a bit closer to the Italian border and visit the town of Ventimiglia to see the famous Friday market. The town's weekly market attracts thousands of people from both France and Italy and provides a spectacle of vendors selling everything including fruit, flowers and fish. But would you still go there if you knew it was also reputed to be the biggest black market in Europe?

You certainly know you are in Italy when you come to Ventimiglia, even though you are only a few kilometres from France. The coastline is a continuation of that on the French side of the border with a nice beach leading down to the crystal blue waters of the warm Mediterranean. But it is the market that brings most visitors to the town.

At the market, many of the permanent traders selling an amazing selection of the best local fresh produce are based in undercover areas. The beautiful arrangements of flowers and fresh fruit provide a colourful scene. Outdoors there is a different selection of other stalls selling everything from clothing, bags and sunglasses. It is this part of the market that has gained Ventimiglia its black market reputation with many of the products looking like good counterfeit copies of designer goods. However, the make vendors of the illegal goods do not have stalls and will approach potential buyers in person. The French authorities are attempting to clamp down on the sales of counterfeit goods but the impact in Ventimiglia seems to be limited so far.

Rather than focusing purely on the sellers, the police have even been known to target tourists for buying the goods, so you should be careful to check exactly what you are buying. Both the French and Italian police are working on the problem and can either confiscate goods or impose fines, but that shouldn't stop you enjoying a day out in this exciting and colourful town.

The town has a gate on the A10 Motorway, but it's very easy to reach without a car as well. Flythomascook offers flights to Torino Airport, and Turin is connected to Ventimiglia by rail via Cuneo.

(picture Florian Steiner)