Little Italy Mercato — San Diego

Going? You can check in after it ends.

Take the cars out of six blocks and a neighborhood turns into something else entirely. Little Italy gets exactly that treatment every Saturday morning, and the change is more dramatic than it has any right to be.

It is the largest weekly outdoor market in San Diego, and the scale is the fun: farm produce stacked next to handmade jewelry next to a vendor pouring olive oil samples you will still be thinking about a week later. You buy coffee from the person who roasted it. You walk slowly because everyone is walking slowly. Somebody's dog is being admired by strangers. Nobody is in a hurry, which in a city built around freeways is close to a small miracle.

Saturday mornings, year-round, free to walk in.

Go with the person you never seem to get unhurried time with. That is what the six blocks are for.