I Knew We Shouldn't Have Gone...

So, despite my better judgment, we decided to go to the big market day in Ventimiglia today. The reason that I say my better judgment is my readers from last year will remember that we went to Italy and ended up getting stranded there, and had to bring a cab home to France (although its something that I’ll never forget) because all the trains were delayed - sopresso.

So we went to the big market, and I think on the whole it was a bit of a let down for me. I wasn’t in the market for clothing or shoes (although I just LOVE the styling of Italian men’s shoes), which is what predominantly what makes up the market (despite all my photos of food). I could use a new wallet (I’m still carrying the one that my brother-in-law gave me for being in his wedding 25 years ago – thanks Juergen, it was a great gift), but the wallets here are all sized for Euro notes, so they’re sort of useless for North America. If anything, its major appeal is for women - clothing, awesome Louis Vuitton items (the loose wallets that you see in my photo were only 5 Euros each!). I was hoping to get Paul that watch that I promised him for his 60^th birthday, but everything in Italy when it comes to accessories is so BLING! We were looking for something a little more classic, and we never found it.

For lunch we found a nice little out-of-the-way Mom & Pop restaurant and had very good pizza (in Italy!), and bought pasta and sauce form the same people that we did last year (No, you can’t have that sauce with this pasta – you must use this sauce…I love it!) to bring home with us. We also treated ourselves to a very good canolli cookie (although I think my own home-made ones are better. Sigh.) and decided to catch the 1:47pm train back to Menton.

Guess what the sign board said against every departure?

CANCELLED (or cancelleto or something like that, anyway, we clearly got the idea…) “You’ve got to be kidding – not again!” I said in exasperation as we stood amid the crowds in the station. Paul even said a bad word. But then I looked closely at the board… the 1:47 was still departing – but every train thereafter was cancelled. We hastily made our way to platform 3, where the train was all ready waiting, and within minutes we were being ushered back to our beautiful Menton.

That was a close call. The only thing I could do to calm my nerves was have a glass of champagne and sit on the beach…

Sunny, with the occasional light, cotton-ball cloud, and 26C today.