To Market to Market!

New Year's Eve morning. Up at the unGodly (according to Michael) hour of 9:00, we legged it to the bus station, caught the #100 express bus to Monaco, schlepped across the street to the train station and 20 mins later we arrived back in Ventimiglia, Italy. Market day stretches for several blocks along the promenade where the Mediterranean attempted to lap our heels and draw us in. We are mesmerized by the azure blue ripples. The cheap cashmere clothing, designer knock off bags, luggage and shoes didn't appeal but the foodie section most definitely did. Sample tastes of salamis and cheeses caused us to empty our pockets for stray euros. Opting not to calculate the US exchange rate, we stuffed our wedges in our sack and hurried off in search of fresh pasta. Armed with little white pillows stuffed with gorgonzola, perfect strands of linguine and a jar of local freshly-made, garlicky pesto, we thought we'd won the lottery!

A little over-rouged Grandma pulled me into her booth and told me in excited Italian all about her winery and resulting wines. Grandpa jumped up with an English interpretation and a glass of one of their superior wines. Yum..... the 2004 Barbera grape from Asti worked for me. Skip the champagne, I'm popping a red one for NY's Eve.

Next stop.... Illo and another shared mug of to-die-for hot chocolate. He hugged us like family and began mixing his potion before we'd ordered.... he also popped on his videos and subjected us to 5 more new clips! Thirty minutes later found us retracing our train and bus steps back to Nice.