There's a way to get to know a city that no bus tour can replace - get up early and go to the market. Not the tourist one, but the one where locals buy their dinner. Across Europe there are markets worth a whole trip, places where the smell of flowers, cheese and fresh bread tells you more about a people than any museum.

In London, Columbia Road turns every Sunday into a tunnel of flowers that literally takes over the narrow East London lane - hydrangeas, peonies, roses and lavender, with vintage shops all around. Few places in Europe can match that explosion of colour on a Sunday morning.

France offers two entirely different worlds. In Sarlat, in the heart of Perigord, the market smells of truffles, foie gras, duck and walnuts, with Bergerac wines on every corner. Down south, in Cassis, the same ritual takes on a Mediterranean tone - olives, aromatic herbs, goat's and sheep's cheeses and Provencal sausages under the open sky.

Italy, of course, doesn't lag behind. Porta Palazzo in Turin is one of the largest open-air markets in Europe - hazelnuts, Piedmontese chocolates, fish, truffles and mushrooms in one place. And in the very heart of Rome, Campo de' Fiori offers a dozen tomato varieties, fruit and vegetables from Lazio, and an authentic pecorino romano no shop can imitate.

Finally, for those who love the sea, the market in Olhao on Portugal's Algarve fills its stalls every Saturday with sardines, octopus and shellfish pulled out that same morning. The point of all these places is the same: the real taste of a place isn't sold in a souvenir shop, but off a stall, early in the morning, where the local money moves.