Off to market and the Pantheon

Tuesday Jan 21, 2014

Tuesday dawned with everyone feeling better, ready to tackle what ever the day brought.  First on the agenda was a coffee ( or in our case a caffe latte) and coronetto (sweet pastry).  Then it's off to the market to see what is interesting to buy for provisions.

In our Technocram elevator - no room to move!!

                           

Date palm tree

 fruit hanging on the tree


Little girl and her mother feeding pigeons in the park,
Mother was encouraging her to give her cookie to the birds,
 but she was having none of it!

I love the markets because there is such a cacophony of sound, smells(which sadly I can no longer sense), color, variety and interplay between merchants and buyers.  Here the butchers is chopping his product right before your eyes - you can get specific cuts if you wish, no extra costs.  There are separate butchers for beef, pork, chicken, lamb, etc, as well as butchers who sell only meats that are prepared according to religious standard.   Here they offer the whole animal, so you can get the head and tail and everything in between, even the feet!!  And , of course it goes with out saying the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, brains, stomach lining (tripe) are also on offer.  Very little is pre-packaged.

fresh fish on display, just one of many similar
merchants in the market

Spices, beans, grains and lentils

                               
The vegetables are rough and ready, some with the dirt still clinging.  Tomatoes are not uniform in colour and have blemishes, all these would be discarded in North American grocery stores , not worthy of the high price charged.  Celery bunches were 24 inches long with the full stem intact and instead of being plum and full of water as in North America, they were more dry looking.  If you want just two stems they are pulled of and you paid the same price per kilo as the full bunch, where we often pay up to twice the price for the convenience of someone else having performed this task.

The fish mongers, and there were many, all have their product whole and fresh on ice.  The skin are always nice an glistening and the eyes are clear and bight.  Little is frozen.  The prawns, clams, shrimp, snails are all still alive and moving.  I am not sure what Cheryl thought of this.

 A common site is to see beggars on the street, they mostly seem to be Roma or gypsies as we would refer to them, and they often present as having some disability.  We are not sure what the purpose of the box was but what struck us were the pristine white bandages on the legs.  The lady below is a sight you see often, and they will stay in this position for long periods of time.

Next we were off to the see the Spanish steps and other highlights of the Grand Tour.  We hopped on to one of these tiny little buses, believe it or not the capacity for this one is 8 seated, 22 standing and one wheelchair.

Bus 117
First stop was the Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

Fountain at Spanish Steps currently under refurbishment

Musical interlude on our way down
the shopping streets

One very happy lady!!  A visit inside
southern Europe's
largest Louis Vuitton store

An even happier  husband, the
cheque book came away unopened
 from this days stroll

TOURIST ALERT!!! 

For the best experience, always ensure that you have a qualified, experienced and 

MOST IMPORTANTLY 

knowledgeable guide

After all this window shopping therapy, we were off to find the Pantheon, which proved to be very elusive.  Try as we may we never did find it, and asking for directions proved the futile and frustrating.  One person would say this way and turn left, the next on would say, that way and turn right, and we finally gave up when we were directed to go back the same way we had just come!!!!!!!  The tourists were having some misgivings about the experience and qualifications of the TOUR GUIDE
that they had hired and she pointed out that they were probably getting what they paid for!

Night time having fallen it was time to find a bus home and get something for supper.  Tonight's supper was pizza to go and arancini's and suppli (deep fried rice balls filled with meats and vegetables).

Variety of fresh pizza on offer that is purchased by slicing
off whatever size you want and paying by weight.
This allows you to have 2 or 3 different samples.