Turino has a number of markets on various days selling various things. I've no idea which area the one we visited was in (must consult the man who keyed in the satnav every day). The traffic was a little busy and we got stuck in a side street for a few minutes. The car in front decided to start beeping and waving his arms out of the car window. From nowhere sprung an Italian policeman shouting 'Calmati! Calmati!' which means calm down I guess. There was a lot of arm waving. It was all very amusing to the children in the back.
The market was busy and varied. Ella bought some black Ali Baba trousers very cheaply, with evenings of 28 degrees at ten o clock at night it was often too warm to wear them but she did make use of them during the two days we encountered storms. Jake's plan was to buy silicon wristbands for as many Italian football teams as he could, he found some for Turino. We also bought a whole kilo of ready to eat green plums which were delicious. I was pleased to see a sort of haberdashery type stall. I wish I'd taken a photograph but it was just too busy. We had only just learnt the numbers from one to ten at this point, and the Italian for 'how much is this?' so I put both to good use and established that the raffia yarn was 3 euros and I asked for tre raffia which came to nove euro. The woman was so friendly and helpful despite speaking not a word of English, showing me a sample hat crocheted using raffia. She even looked in boxes for more colour choices. The photo is a bit bleached out (my little iPod couldn't cope with all the bright light) but the raffia is actually a variegated blue. It's about the same price in the UK once you've worked out the € to £ but I would have had to pay postage because I couldn't get it locally.
Very early one morning I woke before everyone else and sat at a sunny balconied window watching early morning joggers, people walking small dogs, an old woman tending to her window box geraniums whilst still in her thin white cotton night shirt. I sat there and started off a crochet hat with the raffia and when the old woman realised what I was doing she waved respectfully and nodded, perhaps with approval. It was a lovely moment. English/Italian, no words needed. I went on to learn that they really love crochet in Italy, particularly the older women.
The heat was intense. Cold Coca Cola never tasted so good. After the market we headed straight down to the coast to Noli for a swim. We literally dumped the car as soon as we could. Grabbed the pre packed beach bags with costumes and towels, found a small spot on the beach and ran down to the water. Straight in, all four of us. Warm as bath water. The children's faces were a picture. It was paradise.
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