We don't have internet service at this hotel so I am forced to practice my all-thumbs typing. We picked up the car and were relieved to find that our parking charge of 149E was covered by the two pre-paid 20E tickets from the hotel. Considering that the hotel rate was 60E per night that would have been a real killer!
The drive to Bolsena was pretty with winding roads though grapevines and sunflowers that were ready for harvest. We stopped in Montepulciano for lunch and walked up the roads to the square at the top, pretty typical of these castle/fortress towns.
Bolsena is the first town along the Miglia route that we are going to follow for the next two days. It will be interesting to see how much I remember !
Onward ...
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave and Sandy Thompson <wdavidthompson@msn.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 07:33:44
To: <wdavidthompson@msn.com>
It's always fascinating to shop in new places, especially food and kitchenwares. Kitchen utensils and appliances are especially interesting with different shapes and colours. We always go into grocery stores and specialty food stores -- yesterday we hit a couple, one with a huge array of aged balsamic vinegars more expensive by the ounce than fine wines; Olive oil, olives, truffle-infused, tiny bottles for lots of Euros !
I took a quick browse around the central market this a.m. and we'll go back before we leave town. Our parking lot is right underneath. It's probably a little smaller than the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, in retail floor space -- by my estimation anyway, once you take into account the lower level of the SLM -- but obviously has a different flavour. Fish occupies a huge area in the SLM but I didn't see any in my quick walk-around ... or at least fish didn't stand out. Of course many vendors were still setting up for the day, again different from the SLM which is open so early. Perhaps this market is open early on a Saturday as well, this only being Friday. The SLM almost doubles its space on Saturday with the building across the street ... not so this one which is locked into its space. Cheese, meats, one stall completely mushrooms, olives - I'm sure that my second impression will differ from the first once everything is open.
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Back from breakfast, went to the food market and confirmed that it's probably about the same size as the main level in the STL, smaller when you take the lower level of the STL into account. We did find the fish, tucked into the back corner, a few stalls. There's not as much variety of fish, more in meat perhaps, certainly more in veggies -- on a daily basis but not on Saturday at the STL -- wine no comparison, since the STL doesn't sell wine :) -- cheese, olives, condiments -- different. The STL definitely has more hot sauce and international foods, this is purely Italian !
The outside market, which we're in the middle of (couldn't drive to our hotel during the day) was just coming to life, not all stalls fully assembled. Sandy did do some buying -- a white linen blouse and skirt. I don't need a purse so didn't do any shopping !
We had coffee in the market -- espresso + cappuccino for 1.80E that were excellent, vs the 10E that we paid in the cafe next door to our hotel which were middling. What does that tell you ?
9:30 -- Web are packing our bags now, will leave shortly.
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