Here is the market with its Christmas decorations.
Strangely, most of the shoppers are men. It would appear a lot of men do the family shopping in Italy. At least this morning, there were very few women at the market. It is a very busy place, especially on Saturdays.
We set out to the market with our list of all the things we wanted to buy. One of these was celery root. I did not know the Italian name for it and tried to describe celery root to the woman we had already bought several vegetables from. She shouted to the guy at the next booth: "Gianni, what tastes like celery and is round like a ball?" Gianni could not figure it out, but he asked the woman next door. Soon the whole section of the market was grappling with this riddle and having a good time.
A grand-mother, who was sure what I wanted was rapa, took me by the hand and led me to a magnificent clump of turnips. Finally, another dealer figured it out and said what they want is sedano rapa. They did not have any in this section of the market. However, I now knew the name and was able to ask for it at some other dealer that had a magnificent sedano rapa. I bought it, but was given in change a handful of very small coins which made it very difficult to know if it was the right change. Afterwards, whenever possible I tried to get the right amount to pay for my purchases. Lorne says it is the French peasant in me, always thinking I am being short changed.
There is a whole street of temporary shops just outside the market. They are there all week but seem much more numerous on Saturdays.
Walking back home, we saw something we did not expect to see - a dollar store (but, this being Florence, it is in a rather grand setting)!!
We set out to the market with our list of all the things we wanted to buy. One of these was celery root. I did not know the Italian name for it and tried to describe celery root to the woman we had already bought several vegetables from. She shouted to the guy at the next booth: "Gianni, what tastes like celery and is round like a ball?" Gianni could not figure it out, but he asked the woman next door. Soon the whole section of the market was grappling with this riddle and having a good time.
A grand-mother, who was sure what I wanted was rapa, took me by the hand and led me to a magnificent clump of turnips. Finally, another dealer figured it out and said what they want is sedano rapa. They did not have any in this section of the market. However, I now knew the name and was able to ask for it at some other dealer that had a magnificent sedano rapa. I bought it, but was given in change a handful of very small coins which made it very difficult to know if it was the right change. Afterwards, whenever possible I tried to get the right amount to pay for my purchases. Lorne says it is the French peasant in me, always thinking I am being short changed.
There is a whole street of temporary shops just outside the market. They are there all week but seem much more numerous on Saturdays.
Walking back home, we saw something we did not expect to see - a dollar store (but, this being Florence, it is in a rather grand setting)!!
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ReplyDeleteA French peasant and a Ukrainian peasant went to Italy and a good time was had by all! he he. Are the streets more narrow than Canada?
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I once made the mistake of touching the produce at a market in Venice and the elderly lady who ran the stand slapped my hand and yelled at me in Italian. It was surprising but funny. It's easy to get confused with foreign currency. My mom and I accidentally gave a cab driver in Istanbul a huge tip when we misread the amount on the bill. He was thrilled but we were a bit broke.
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