Ferrara, Sunday

Today was a rest and read- info- and –decide- what-to-do-and eat-and-drink-for-the-week day. Firstly coffee and croissant for breakfast. I was a bit surprised at how confident I sounded. I was understood. I was also pleased at how little thought I put into deciding that I wanted to sit down and so what if it cost a few more euros. In the past I would have worried about spending the extra, converting it into dollars in my head. I will worry about converting the euro to $ later when I work out how much I have spent.

I wandered around the castle and palace and cathedral area. There was a local market in one of the squares and I bought some apples . I asked about the nectarines. I could not remember the word for ripe so asked, in Italian, if I could eat them now. Si, si he said ,as he cut 1 and gave me half. Oops, I wasn’t really asking for a taste, but it was very nice so I bought some – cheap at €1 per kilo. I then stood a bit to 1 side and ate 1 of the apples. Several more people came along, asking about the apples – he pointed to me – la donna staniera ( not strange, foreign) – and said I like them. I wandered off and passed a shop selling fresh pasta, so I bought some cappellacci ( similar look to the cappelletti but filled with pumpkin) for lunch and a stuffed zucchina . I put them in the fridge then went to the supermarket. This was an interesting exercise. Yoghurt was easy , the pictures tell you what fruit is in it– but milk – there were about 6 different types of latte bottles and they did not use words like ‘20% fat’ that I would have recognised. I had no idea. They had a promotion on Blu milk i.e milk in an opaque dark blue plastic bottle. Apparently the uni in Milano has found that blu keeps the milk fresh for longer. It was the cheapest – who knows how much fat it has. A little old lady got confused and started to put her things in my basket – so I talked to her for a bit. Her neighbour’s daughter has been to Australia on exchange ( I think) and she watches shows on TV about Australia. I had another problem. I knew I had enough food for a nice meal for lunch so thought I should buy some wine, ( when in rome – abbreviated in future when I justify all the other things I need to try) but I had not done my homework and could not recognise any local wines ( of which there are some) After a lot of thought I decided to leave it and have a drink in the evening instead, I know that there will be several local aperativs on the list.

I had seen people greet and part from each other with the words that translate as ‘good Sunday’ Mainly older people. Anyway the old lady in the supermarket beamed at me when I wished her a good Sunday on parting.

I pottered in my apartment till 5.ish and went for a stroll. I found a bar that was very near the centre and sat down. It was ¼ full. The bars nearer the centre were more full. I had a spritz – purely to compare it with what I had in Venice 18 months ago – as though I could remember but it sounded like a good reason at the time. I had been wandering around without a map ( you’d be pleased, C) and half way thru the drink I looked at the map and still could not figure out which of the castles 4 walls I was next to. I was there quite happily watching the world go past from 5.40 to 6.25. It was ¾ full when I left. Several people came and went in that time. 2 old codgers who clearly were known to the staff sat next to me and drank tea. Hot water was brought in a tea pot and a basket of assorted teabags for them to choose from.

I looked in a few gelato ( w i rome..) shops and there seemed to be a scale of prices depending on how many flavours you had, starting at E1.5 I had been recommended a place a bit away from the centre on the way home. Would it be open? Did I have the energy and want a gelato badly enough to walk back to the centre if it was closed? Tricky. Luckily it was. It’s price list only said cone E2 – then other things. I had to watch for a while because I did not know how many flavours you could have. People were having everything from 1 to about 6 and I could not tell what they were paying. The staff made the cones look like beautiful flowers. I had 2 flavours for E2. It was delicious, though now I have a problem. Do I try gelati from other shops ( purely for research reasons – they are valid, gluttony is not a valid reason, tho I think w i r may be valid) or do I stick to something that I know is excellent and ‘research’ how many flavours I can get for E2?

At home I had some bread and tomato for dinner ( how frivolous- sweet before savoury)while watching an Italian quiz shop. Do I want to stay up tonight to watch Inspector Montalbano with no subtitles?