The Italian Market

I am not quite sure what it is about this hostel, but I cannot manage to get a good night of sleep. We had one blind shut and both windows and I was still laying in bed for a long time. I was awake when my final roommate arrived and laid there some more. Finally I managed to get to sleep for a few hours.

My two roommates from Argentina were planning to get up at 7...and they did. I woke up shortly thereafter and headed down to get breakfast. After eating I went to the brisk streets to find the market. I have to say, without looking at a map, I am pretty good with this city! I found it in no time and walked around. It reminded me a lot of Redding Terminal in Philadelphia but they did not have many places to get food and eat (other than for a panini).



I picked up some things while browsing the vendors: a nectarine, brie, three figs and some bread. The stories behind the food. I found the nectarine and decided to get it. I gave it to the man and he said something to me, I had no idea. He repeated it, nothing. He asked if I was going to eat it, I said yes. He said "me clean?" I said yes. I got a nice washed nectarine!

I walked by some cheese places and stopped asking one guy what is a mild cheese. I had a hard enough time in France, but now everything was in Italian! You would think the names of the cheeses would be the same, but they were not, plus they now also had lots of Italian cheeses that I had not seen before. He suggested brie and I went for it (funny how I didn't have any when in France).

I found a place selling figs and stood there. The guy sweeping the floor asked if I needed help and then got his mom to assist. She told me the price, which really meant nothing as I cannot understand a word of Italian. I asked for three and she picked out soft ones that I could eat today.

Last place on my stop: bread. The breads that these bakeries had looked a lot harder than French ones so I figured I should ask. I asked the vender for a bread to eat with cheese and fruit. She said "with fruit" and I said yes. She pointed to my two options and I picked the one with nuts. (I would like to take this opportunity to say that the bread was fig bread and not bread to eat with fruit. It was funky tasting and I did not eat much of it.)

I packed my goodies into my book bag and headed off in search of a garden.