Starting at the Fish Market

For the commercial vendors the market opens at 4 am - I likely couldn't have made it even if I'd wanted, which of course, I didn't. By 9:00 there was still a good selection of fish, some still trying to escape apparently!

This vendor is quite proud of his scallop display - complete with the pink part of the scallop, not found in Canada.

The first part of the morning was along a very pleasant canal; later we headed onto some quite rough pathways - my butt is definitely feeling each bump!

Along with cycling we're being schooled in Italian culture.  Tonight we had to make our own pasta - a local variety called Bigoli - much like spaghetti but thicker. Here our chef and assistant, Guiliano and Erika, demonstrate how the machines work. First stuff the cylinder with dough (1 kilo flour, 8 eggs) then wind the 'screw' until the pasta squeezes out the bottom. It's harder than it looks!

Then after dinner we had a lesson in coffee - apparently more than 100 different kinds here in Italy. Guiliano and Erika gave a little skit showing the confusion about espresso, macchiato, cappuccino, with or without grappa, with or without milk, hot milk or cold milk and certain types are consumed at different times of the day. To become a barrista takes about 10 years. No wonder we have such trouble getting 'normal coffee'!