How long has it been there? Forever. Who knows about it, who goes there? Everybody. What’s its real name? Al Mercà, as a friend noticed recently when she reviewed her scontrino (receipt). Ma come mai, what’s up with that? (In a world of incessantly shifting truths, I like to pin down certainty whenever possible, especially on trivial details. Makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something.)

You might assume “market” in Venetian is marcà. It isn’t. Mercà is the Venetian word for the Italian mercato, and this makes sense: we can see the relationship in the two words, we are at ease. So, why then, is Al Marcà printed so blatantly on the tenda? Is it wrong? A mistake? Some hip, VenInglese word? The answer is the one that often applies to so many questions concerning Italy, and certainly to Venice: dipende. Yes…and no.

Marcà, it turns out, is mercato (market), in the version of the Veneto dialect spoken in Noale, where the original owners are from. Noale is a whole 35 km up the road, so of course, they have a different word for market. And the word ended up printed on the awning. And the actual business is named differently. And no one ever bothered to change it. And it doesn’t matter to anyone but us, supplied with another topic for discussion as we bob beneath the awning, munching a polpetto and sipping a teroldego or an (exceptionally potent) Spritz.

There you have it. I knew this was a burning question for everyone, and I think, from our intense research, we have found the answer. But then again, I would never say it was assolutamente così…