Cooking Without Borders

Julianna writes: The trip to San Benedetto del Tronto earlier today was crazy! We started off with an early morning bus ride down the mountain to the seaside town. Going down the windy road on the mountain was an adventure in itself; we zipped around sharp turns that were made tolerable by seeing the amazing view of the coast.

Today is the town's market day. There are hundreds of vendors in the open air market. They sell everything! There are fruits and vegetables from local farms, clothes, tools, items for the kitchen and anything else you can imagine.

We were able to bargain with the vendors to get better prices on great items.

One highlight: the watermelon. Unbelievable! There are huge tanks that hold about 100 melons in ice water. You tell the vendor how many people you are buying for and they cut huge sections out of the ice cold watermelons and serve them to you with a knife stuck in a wedge. You stand at the counter and devour the dripping wedges. Delicioso!

I got to meet an actual accordion player in the market! It really feels like Italy after hearing accordion music filling the air surrounding all the crowds of shoppers. Up until now, it just seemed so unreal, almost like a dream.

We got a bit of break from the heat, finally. As soon as we got back from San Bendetto it poured. This is the first time we really saw rain here. And the town is just as beautiful in the rain.