The market lasts until about 12:30 or 1 pm and then the trucks have to be gone by 2 pm. This is what it looks like at about 1 pm. If you look closely you can see that no one is strolling between the trucks.
Some of the merchants get going faster than others. You can see the van in the middle who has everything put away and is ready to roll.
Many of the merchants hang items from the tent structure so when they start to pack up they tip the tents down so they can reach all those items.
All of the goods are packed into boxes or bags and the tables folded away. It all goes into the van which is about the size of a Dodge work van.
Here is another shot of someone packing up.
Below you can see that about half the merchants have left. When they are ready to go they manage to squeeze out and drive off.
Most of the vans are a similar type (the Dodge work van style with the automatic folding tent on top). Here is one that is a little different--the hard sides pop up to form a covered structure.
In this picture you can see an orange van and a white van that look a little like motor homes. They are the food vans. The orange one has a large, built-in rotisserie roaster.
Here is another shot with even more of the merchants gone. All of this "folding of the tents" takes about an hour.
Below is a video showing the tent structure automatically folding up and tucking itself into a neat package. It only takes a little help from the merchant.
By about 2 pm there are only a couple of vans left. The street sweeper is already at work tidying up the piazza. Eventually the barriers come down that block off the piazza and traffic begins to flow through it again. In spite of all the space there are really only two lanes going through and it is quite a zig zag. Some drivers get a little confused about which lane they should be in and where they should go. Even though Friday is the most active day in the piazza there is always something going on.
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