Today marks the anniversary of our first week here!

Today is Wednesday which is the big market day here in Umbertide. It it HUGE. In front of our apartment in the Piazza is the food part of the market. There are maybe 6 or 7 vegetable and fruit vendors, probably 5 or 6 Porchetta (whole suckling pig that they slice for you) vendors, 2 fish dealers, 3 or 4 cheese vendors (some specialize in Mozzarella di Buffala others in fresh ricotta), two flower and plant dealers. Then the market sprawls around the castle complex and there were probably 30 clothing, shoe, household goods like sheets, dealers. It was amazing. Here are pictures of the castle (first) and one of the aisles in the clothing market.

I bought some vegetables and fruit and some little, tiny clams and calamari to make a spaghetti dish. Love those little clams. Everything was very crowded and you had to compete with a lot of people.

I ran into Michelle who I met at the Cuba Feste. She is the one taking care of the alpacas. She told me a funny story about the first morning she went out to tend them. The male had gotten in with the females. She has NO IDEA how but they were very calm after a busy night 🙂

We decided to go across the bridge to the wine shop we had visited a couple of days ago. They served lunch several days a week. They had 3 tables out front under umbrellas. The food was very good. We had some good bread with olive oil, and a couple of slices of proscuitto and cheese. Then we both had the tomato eggplant pasta. Perfectly al dente. The funny part was that both of the other tables were full of english speakers! One was all Brits. The other was a couple of American women who had been on a painting holiday in Tuscany and their friend Geoff who lives in Umbertide and is British and another man who is German. One of the women heard us speaking and came and sat right down with us and asked us where we were from. We had a nice conversation. Turns out she is from LA and the other woman lives just near the French Embassy in Georgetown in DC. Small world. I got contact info from her and Geoff. Geoff is a builder and real estate agent here. He is interested in having a website so I may have a little work from our encounter.

Another interesting day. It is warm with brilliant blue skies here right now.