I needed to pick up:
1. Books for school
2. Purchase some earmuffs (it's freezing and snowing here--and our apartment has no hot water or heat...again)
3. Go to the market to pick up some fresh veggies (I've been craving Zucchini).
The books were easy enough and the earmuffs have yet to be purchased. But boy did I hit it big when I found the Mercato Centrale!
It's essentially an outdoor market underneath a tent with plastic side panels due to the weather. The market is filled with the freshest fruits, veggies and pastas you could ever imagine and some of the nicest people you will ever meet.
I was so overwhelmed when I stepped inside that I didn't know where to began and just started to weave my way through the different stations. I wound up at a station that was selling Zucchini and of course had to buy "some". However, Note to Self: Learn Italian (especially how to say that I don't want 1 kilogram). The woman was talking so fast that I replied "si," and in no time I found myself with 11/eleven/undici Zucchinis all for the low price of 2 euro.
Alright, obviously I was doing something wrong here because no one else was carrying around 11 zucchinis*.
I continued to stop at various stations where I purchased 3 oranges (they had to have been picked straight from the tree because there were still leaves on them), 3 kiwis, and 1 eggplant. I'm hoping to sauté some of the zucchini and eggplant tonight and place it over pasta. It will be my own version of pasta primavera!
Total Cost at the Mercato Centrale: 5 Euro.
Not bad for my first trip to the market. Zucchini anyone?
**I finally realized I just needed to specify the number of items I wanted to purchase because no one in their right mind would purchase 11 zucchinis-- Italians buy their foods fresh everyday.
(The best orange I've ever had)
(fresh veggies)
(11 zucchinis AKA 1 kilogram)
Hi! You write so well! Great fun to read. Welcome to snow!
ReplyDeleteI just pointed at things and used my fingers to show how much cheese or how much sausage.
I don't know what kind of orientation they gave you before going abroad, but knowing how it felt when I lived in India, and how it went with Julia here in America, there are some pretty defined stages of things... like, in the beginning, everything will be wonderful and you adore it, then you start having some struggles to just get things done (laundry, finding peanut butter, your computer has a virus...) and then you get upset or frustrated, which usually leads to homesickness. Then you start moving into competency where you do know how to get things done and you feel comfortable, even if you do crave a hamburger from McDs, and then you have to go home and you get tearful. The best advice I got is to take pictures of ordinary things (I always took photos of phone booths wherever I went because they were always so different)... like taxis and kitchen appliances and TVs and shops and even bathrooms. The rest of Florence won't change, but when you look back in 20 years or go there when you are 50 and everything is different, you will be glad you did...
So, my last two bits of aunt advice, for what they are worth, is to read Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstacy while you are there. You can probably get it on line. This is, in novel form, the story of Michealangelo... carving the David, the Pieta, and Moses, painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, fighting with the Pope... then, when you are walking around Florence, it all feels so much more real. (Stone also wrote a good novel about Camille Pissaro...)
And my second piece of advice, after lots of trial and error around the world of "what to bring back home." Some favorites...I brought home a little piece of art from Florence, a beautiful oil of an ordinary street, nothing touristy. We still love that. And, one time from Paris, I brought home a beautiful, pink-flowered hot chocalate cup and saucer set that just screamed Ile St Louis to me, that I could use all the time. Of course I also brought home some parrot green leather gloves bought from a shop near the River Arno, the kind that are utterly useless but which you can always say you bought in Italy... and, of course, a Christmas tree ornament from everywhere we go. So, something beautiful to look at, something beautiful to use often that you couldn't get in the US, something "of the moment" that makes you feel well-traveled and cosmopolitan, and something for your own traditions... That's my advice!
I remember once when we were walking through the mall and Paige was maybe 4, and there was a sign for an eyeglass store that had an image, for some reason, of Monet's painting of his green bridge at Giverny, and Paige just randomly commented, "The bridge, the bridge!" And when I tried to figure out what she was talking about, she pointed at the painting and said, "We've been there." And she was right... we had seen the painting and been to the bridge at Giverny. So, like Mona Lisa, things do stick with you very early and become part of your eternal archives...
Thanks for sharing.
Joan
Meggie,this is such a funny story and thank you for sharing ! I like Aunt Joan's advice...hold up a finger to say how many! It does sound like such a fun market and the fruit is beautiful (love the picture). We need to get Mere to paint a picture....a great still life painting! Do you want a recipe for zucchini bread? I can't wait to read about more adventures in Florence !
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