It is a warm day today and I did not leave the house until 1pm–it was hot. I stopped for a plate of pasta in a bar up the street but my major motivation was the market. Most markets take place in the morning but the Saturday market here in Bra is held in the afternoon.

After lunch I made my way through the town and to the covered market area. All along the way men were working hard putting up tents for next week’s big event, Cheese. When I reached the market area I was suprised to find there were only tents and equipment for Cheese and no market. I continued on behind the market building where I found about ten stands with a good selecion of fresh fruits and vegetables. All week I have been asking myself why the produce looks so much better here. It looks like it has been grown by humans and it is nice that those humans, farmers, are there selling it to you.

Almost everyone was speaking Piedmontese but I could still catch a word here and there. I found it hard to contain my purchasing and keep in mind I only had to feed myself. I bought beautiful red and yellow peppers, cuore di bue tomatoes that would go perfect with the canasta lettuce I had just bought. I purchased basil and garlic for a pasta sauce and then I hit my weakness : fruit. Apples and pears are in season so I bought some of those. However, what blew me away were the grapes. One vendor let me try each kind and I loved them all. At home I love eating concord grapes because they have tannic skins and a very grapey sweetness. I settled for some barbera grapes that are usually used for making wine. They were closest to the concords I love so much but with larger individual tightly-packed berries. I bought a kilo.

The best thing was that all my shopping cost me less than 10 euros. This is one of the advantages of living in a small town in the countryside.