Thankfulness Day 13

Yep, waaaaay behind again. I will not give up, but will catch up. Well, maybe not before the end of the month given.....well, life. I'll explain why when I get to those days :-)

Tuesday. Woke up with another migraine. Seriously?!?!?! That's two in one month. Oy! I dread thinking what's going on inside my brain. I've heard rumors and theories about what migraines (constant ones anyway) cause. Am I in that category? How many a month is constant? One? More? Does skipping a month take me off the list? Well, guess we shall see....eventually. Hmmmm

Instead of sitting home and....oh, taking drugs and sleeping it off (not me...), I went to the market.
Now, if you're in America, that means the grocery store. Here in Italy, that means an outdoor market. Which...is part of what my "Thankful" is today. I'll tell what it is, then explain more. I am thankful for Italian culture. One thing that is hard for Americans here is reposo. Hubby calls it "sleepy time." {I'll get into the history in a later post} The majority of the stores (pretty much all but malls) and restaurants close from 1230/1:00 until 230/3:00. When the actual closing is depends on the specific store. But pretty much everything has reopened by 3:30. Including petrol stations. You can still "fill 'er up", but you're doing the pumping. Odd? Being part of the military stationed here, we buy Gas Coupons. We pay $X for up to 300 liters (depending on the size of the engine in the primary car) and "Pay" with those coupons when we go to certain petrol station chains. If they're closed, we have to pay out of pocket. Yeah....no thanks....not unless we have no choice. 1 liter=almost 3,50 Euros. That's over $4 a liter not gallon. Put it this way. When we fill up our jeep when it's about 1/4 left (like today), we paid 35 liters. Here, I'll do the math: 35 liters X $4 (cheaper than it is)=$140. The whole 300 liter book cost roughly (depending on the exchange rate) $130. See why we gauge our fill times?

WOW! That was a rabbit trail. hehe
Another culture item is the town market. {Yep, finally getting back to that} This is when vendors set up stalls or flip the sides of their trucks up and sell everything from shoes to rugs to produce to seafood. Here's some pics from two different markets.

Gloves, scarfs, umbrellas

Yellow one sells cheeses; front right womens clothes

Plants....flowering and not

Close-up of a few of those plants

Random booths

Shoes and boots

Tuesday is market day for the town close to us. Not our town. Our town only has a hand-ful of vendors. The one I go to nearly every week is not too far away; most of my church friends go (we meet for shopping and then a cafe....YUM); there's a good amount of vendors, but kinda spread out, so you get your walking in without realizing it. ;-) The other market is further away and on Thursdays. One or 2 pics are from that one. I've only been to that one twice. There is a market in nearly every decent-sized town here. It is where the folks wen before the chain stores started. Farmers set-up their trucks and sold fresh produce (in season=healthier) and they bought for the week until the next market. Some of the bigger towns have a market twice a week.

I love the "old-time" feel. Back to Basics is a theme I'm working on working on. Soooo much healthier and better for me. :-)