In Latiano we started out the day with Gianni and Anyssa at the Open Market in Francavilla. I would compare this to a Flea Market back in the states...except less trashy with alot cooler stuff. It's outside every Saturday morning til noon. Their are vendors everywhere selling knock off designer clothing, purses, underwear, Italian shoes and even some replica soccer jerseys. We walked around and looked at everything. It was really cool. Below is a picture of the market.
After the market, we headed back to Latiano for lunch. We stopped by the neighborhood butcher shop. In Italy, most people buy their meats and cheeses at a butcher shop. Their were so many different cheeses...but the best one of all was the fresh mozzerella. When I say fresh, I mean FRESH! The butcher was an old soccer buddy of Gianni's so he was glad to let the "American friends" try to tasty Italian cheeses. He gave us each what looked like a knot of mozzerella cheese. It was very different from the kind you buy at Wal-Mart. I asked Brandon to help me describe it to you and all he said was "awesome." I think he probably ate 20 of the little knots. It was very creamy and soft. Gianni said most Italians don't prepare it any special way, they just eat it fresh like it comes.
The butcher shop also prepares dishes for people to take home and eat. Gianni got a couple different things. He got a dish with a few different kinds of meat, mushrooms and olives. He also got an eggplant dish. It was eggplant filled with ground beef, ham, egg and cheese. I know what you're thinking, "There is no way Savannah would eat that." Well, all of you should be very proud because I tried it. I have to be honest, I was not a huge fan. It was just a very different flavor and texture. I couldn't quite get used to it. I did try it though and that is what counts.
Here is a picture from the butcher shop of the fresh mozzerella:
After lunch, we said goodbye to the Bruno's. We had such a wonderful time with them and hope to visit them again when we live in Italy for good.
We hopped on a train back to Ancona. I have to mention that this train ride was much more pleasant than our first. I think the air condition was broken on our first ride and we were roasting for 6 hours. Our ride back to Ancona was relaxing though. The train wasn't crowded and it was comfortably cool.
We got into Ancona a little after 7:00. Jason picked us up and we headed downtown to meet Josh Furnal. He's another member of the Ancona team. We were pretty hungry by then, so Josh took us to a little "trattoria" by his house. There are different classifications of restaurants in Italy. A ristorante is ussually a nice sit down atmosphere and can be quite pricey. Trattoria's are Italian restaurants that area little cheaper than the ristorante. I would compare it to a diner or nice cafe in America. The one we went to is near Josh's house and he dines there frequently. We sampled a few different things. We had some pasta with a meat sauce which was very good. Josh also ordered what looked like a hanging shish-kabob with a few different kind of meat on it. After that, we sampled a few deserts. I can't remember what they were called but one was a creamy white pudding with mixed berry sauce on it and the other was also a creamy filling with carmalized sugar on top. Both were very tasty.
After dinner, we set out on a walk through downtown Ancona. We walked through a few piazzas and saw lots of rowdy teenagers who were up to no good. I think that is a universal occurence on Saturday night. We saw people walking dogs...which we are always glad to see. We met one of the students in the Ancona team's English outreach program. It was really nice to go on a walk after sitting on a train for so long all day. It was great to talk to Josh about life in Italy and the Ancona team's work here. We walked all the way to the Adriatic sea at the end of town. On the way back, we stopped at a Gelataria for some gelato. Gelato is like ice cream only a million times better. Brandon ate coffee flavored and I got chocolate chip. It was excellent. We also got a little taste of Italian tv. It was a little crazy. The show that was on was some sort of variety show with singing, jokes, skits and dancing on roller skates. It was a fun night and we are excited to spend the day in Ancona tommorow.
Brandon and Josh enjoying gelato!
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