Welcome to another italianando blog! Talking about fruit today, la frutta! Check out the podcast too to hear the pronunciation.

In Italy there are a lot of farmers who own land and have their own little business, so when they have a lot of produce they will go out around the town or village selling what they’re produced.

This is a great way to buy fresh and organic fruit and vegetables and support a local family with their business.

In this post we will be looking at the different expressions you can use when you want to buy something, going through fruit names too. The vegetables will be featured in another post!

What Is a Fruttivendolo?

Today we will be talking about the Italian fruttivendolo. The translation in English is ”greengrocer” and as you’ve gathered, it’s a place where you can buy fruit and vegetables, frutta e verdura.

When you’re exploring Italian cities and towns you might see little stalls with people selling fruit and veg. Sometimes this might be even from the back of a car or of an apecar like the one you can see below. 

Some people own official local businesses, others are just farmers who go around the town selling their own products. Buying products from these types of places it’s probably better as the fruit and veg tend to be fresher, local and organic compared to supermarkets.

When you buy from these vendors you may have to ask for what you want, as it’s not a self-service type of thing like it is in supermarkets where you just pick and choose yourself.

If you go to a small local fruttivendolo shop, you would choose the fruit and veg yourself, but if you buy from street vendors you may have to ask.

Italian Vocabulary and Expressions

These below are some expressions you might want to use when you’re buying fruit at the fruttivendolo.

Depending on the level of confidence you have and on the formality of the place you can use either formal or informal expressions.

Posso avere delle arance per favore? Can I have some oranges please?

Vorrei cinque (5) mele per favore. I would like five (5) apples please. 

Quanto costa? How much does it cost?

Vorrei questo. I would like this.

Avete delle pere? Do you have pears? (formal)

Potrei avere mezzo kilo di castagne? Could I have half a kilo of chestnuts?

Maybe you want to see the fruit you want to buy before you pay for it, just to be sure you’re happy with how ripe it is and how it looks. You may ask:

Può mostrami il melone? Could you show me the melon?

The fruttivendolo might answer like this:

Certo, quanto ne vuole? Of course, how much do you want? 

Da mangiare subito? To eat immediately? (You might want to buy a piece of fruit to eat immediately, in this case, the greengrocer can pick and choose the ripest one)

Basta cosí? Is that everything?

Vuole qualcos’altro? Would you like anything else?

There are different combinations of expressions you can use but these are the most common ones and you will definitely hear them if you ever go to a fruttivendolo in Italy.

Of course if you visit a greengrocer you want to buy fruit, right? Or vegetables.