Day 2 The market place

Today I woke up and went to the market. I spent several hours just walking threw it and taking it all in. As I circled the venders decided what I wanted to eat I tryed a few things here and there. The first stand I came to was full of diffrent types of cellos, lemoncello, chocolate cello, hazelnut cello any thing you could think of. I decided to try the mellon cello, it was fabulous it had a creamy mellon flavor with a hint of the alcohol much better then the everclear we call lemoncello back in the states. Then I moves onto the fruits and nuts. As I restrained from buying a bit of everything I settled with some dates. They had a sweet nutty flavor with a soft juicy texture. The wrinkly skin was soft and not leathery like many of the dates you get in the states, very fresh and not to sweet. Then I moved on to currents/ribes. They call them ribes I've always called them currents so I'm probably wrong but either way they tast amazing especially with vanilla ice-cream. The are a tiny red fruit that when you bight into they kinda pop in your mouth. They are sweet and tart at the same time with a small seed in the middle which gives the juicy fruits a change in texture much like a pomegranate seed. Yep they come on a vine much like a grape. So I decided to take a few back for breakfast tomorrow. As I pondered on I resisted all the olive oils, balsamics, and cellos. Glass bottle before I've even gotten to Cortona sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Then there was all the dryed pastas I could fill a whole crate with the ones I wanted to try but carrying noodles around for 4 monthes when I have an endless amout in every restaurant surrounding me seamed silly. However the spices I could use to cook my lunches on the trip. Plus after working in a spice shop it kinda felt a little like home. I talked to the man about all his diffrents spices and blends and then decided to get one for chicken. At some point I may get tired of pasta, probably not but I most likely won't want to cook it for lunch. So now I have dates, currents, and a spice blend but what's missing?  So I kept searching, searching for the one thing I came to the market place to find. Figs, Sweet juicy necture Incased by a soft seeded teardrop of goodness. There they were green ones purple ones, I bought a few of each. The girl bagging then asked if they were for today or the week inorder to choose ones at the right ripeness. I kinda chuckled they weren't going to make it past the last vender much less tomorrow. I took my bag of goodies and sat at a stained steped statue in the middle of the square. Here I enjoyed my figs as I wrote in my journal, mostly about my figs but I got a postcard or two done also. They also talked about my figs. They were just so delicious the purple ones are a bit sweeter then the green and have a juicer inside they lasted all of 30 seconds. As I sit and write I study the people around me they are mostly tourist as the day gets later all the locals came early and hand picked the good stuff before the crowed go to it. I watch as the Americans crave over the watermelon I just wanted to be like try something you can't really find in the states it's much more exciting then watermelon. I decided to bite my tung if they didn't eat the figs more for me right. After I sit for a while I ask a young girl who's sister sold me the figs to take my picture. Her sister chuckles as the little one doesn't speak but maybe two words of English luckily the camera has a screan and a button not much English needed to show how to use, just a quick game of sharades and I had my photo. Then I was on my way. I walk the streets back the way I came to a small bakery I had stopped into the day before. Here I snagged a small piece of foccacia with ham and cheese and I was off for another walk. I came across a 30 foot door that led into a square with 30 foot pillars and 35 foot arches. It was beautiful and home to some of Da Vincis machines. Here I ate my foccacia and wrote the rest of my postcards. Now it's time to head back to the hotel. The group is meeting soon and I'm excited to meet all the people I will be living with for the next 3 monthes. When I get back I meet my roommate we walk to the town and grab her some lunch and I try my first latte cafe. It was so cute and I forgot to take a picture of it. However I enjoy getting to know my roommate she seams very nice. Once we returned we had our meeting, at this point I realized the program had turned out to be all girls. Yikes..... All girls this is the one think I didn't mentally prepare for and didn't relies could be a reality. Plus most of them already met on the plain so I just kinda ran away for an hour befor dinner. As soon as we all sat down I became more comfortable. Not sure if it was the wine or the latte from earlier but I was wide awake. Dinner was very good and I really enjoyed meeting everyone. For a group of girls they all so far seam very unique in there own ways but we all seam to feed off of each other well. I'm other words I didn't go hide again after dinner. But I am going to turn in for the night there's a big day of sight seeing tomorrow. Ciao...