April 18, 2025

Good Friday

Torino, Italia

Buongiorno, gluten morgen, and a good morning to you. Wanted eggs this morning. Don’t know why, but protein seemed important. So, it was off to the market. Purchased eggs, yogurt, oranges, a lemon iced tea and scurried back to the apartment. Had breakfast and got Mary up.

Serra is going to the vegetable market in Piazza Madama Christina this morning. She has both girls, so we suggested she drop Luisa off here at the apartment with Nonna and I would walk with her to the market and watch Amadea while she shops. The piazza is about six blocks, less than 0.7 kilometers, from our apartment. Straight down Via Accademia Albertina, which changes names at Corso Vittorio Emanuele II to Via Madama Christina, and you arrive at the piazza.

Once there was a fear or uneasiness about going to these open air markets. The chaos, the yelling, the speed at which things happen, it was just so overwhelming it gave an uneasy feeling. Now, there is a beauty to it. Yes, there is a lot of yelling, but it is people just calling out either what they have or what they want. While it looks like and perhaps even feels like total chaos, it isn’t. It is really very organized.

Serra goes to the same vegetable stand, the same butcher (actually different butchers for different things), and the same panificio (baker) every week. They know her, in fact, they know most of their customers. Serra even brings back last week’s paper bags for the vegetables, for this weeks. Egg cartons are brought back and refilled. It is actually very beautiful.

The lady behind the “counter” listens to what Serra wants, then she picks the best of her stock for Serra, a regular customer, puts it into a bag, weighs it and sets it aside and asks, poi, or “then” or “next”, depending on the translation you want to use. This is repeated until Serra finishes her list. It was difficult to follow but it appeared that each transaction is entered into the scale, when you have completed your order, the simply recall the all the items on the scale and print out a list of what you bought and the price. It is extremely efficient.

Standing there watching Amadea, who was asleep most of the time, it was like watching a ballet. All the different colors of the vegetables, different people dancing around collecting the vegetables, different people asking or ordering different things. While it looked completely chaotic it wasn’t.

When we arrived, Serra took a number at the meat counter, and I took one at the vegetable counter. Mine was twenty numbers from that currently being served and Serra’s was five. However, the vegetable stand was much faster than the meat stand. The vegetables were acquired first, then just as Serra finished paying there wasn’t a line at the meat stand, but as we turned to move in the direction of the meat stand, there were three or four people in line. Serra took another number, and we waited. The line moved quickly.

Serra gave the person behind the counter her empty egg cartons, and ordered her cheese and meat. It was extremely efficient. Serra then packed everything into the cart before heading off to the panificio for our bread. Amadea was wake and enjoying the chaos and a bottle while we waited for her mother to return.

Serra explained that because this is a holiday weekend, the market was busier than usual. While Sunday is Easter, Monday is Easter Monday and in Italia the Monday following a holiday weekend is always also a holiday. So, the market will be closed both days.

There are lots of supermercati, PAM, Borello, CRAI, Carrefour, Lidi and others, all over the city, yet people come here. Why? Well, two reasons. One is that the vegetables here are fresher. Some of the supermercati have a butcher or meat counter but the meat is often prepackaged, here you get a better choice, and it is fresher. The supermercati are fine for dry goods, but for better quality fruits, vegetables and meats people tend to go to their local markets.

It should also be pointed out that things in the open-air markets tend to be less expensive. It should also be pointed out that on a Friday at noon, the people in the open-air market were “older”, that is over 35 for sure, most were probably over 50. This is because the younger people are at work for sure. But, thinking about at who is in the supermercati on other occasions, they tended to be younger, that is under 35. It is probable that the younger generation prefers the supermercati? Or, is it that they can’t go shopping in the middle of the day? Maybe the way of life is changing?

We walked back to the apartment and convinced Lulu that it was time to go home. She wanted to stay with nonna, or at least nonna’s iPad. Serra reattached the second seat to the stroller and went off. Mary and I went out for lunch.

We went to Zhen Bao, the Chinese restaurant, we were looking at for dinner last night. We got vegetable spring rolls, meat dumplings, rice with beef and lemon chicken. It was all very good, but not Chef Chu’s, but then what is except for Chef Chu’s. After lunch we walked around the block to Calzedonia where Mary made her annual purchase of socks.

The annual purchase of socks takes about an hour. She buys socks for all the women in the family. Most of which end up in birthday presents or at Christmas as presents. Over the years the purchases have decreased in volume. Years ago, in Firenze we stopped at the Calzedonia on Via die Calzaiuoli and walked out with either three or four bags of socks, leggings and stockings. Today, we walked away with one fairly small bag. Progress?

After lunch it was nap time. After napping it was card playing time. Mary won! After six games in a row for me, she finally turned the tables. Perhaps it was the new score pad? Or, maybe just her turn. We went over to Serra’s about 17:00 to help out while they had a business call to attend to. We stayed until their call was over and then walked back home.

On the way back to the apartment we stopped at McDonalds for a fish sandwich, we finally remembered it wad Good Friday and no meat. Then we stopped at Luiset and picked up some prosciutto to go with the melon purchased at the market today, along with some salame for the next few days.

Upon our return home we played another game of canasta, unfortunately Mary’s winning streak was cut short at one game. By the end of the game, it was time for bed.

Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria