Sunday, January 12
We drove to the beautiful old fishing village of Ferragudo today, about an hour from where we are staying. On the second Sunday of the month they have a massive flea market along the river. Literally anything can be found there, from clothing to toasters, to ceramics. Handmade rugs, jewelry, and many one-of-a-kind items are sold there and it’s fun to walk along and see all the people and all the wares. I bought a nice leather purse and we got a few kitchen items for the apartment where we are staying.
We had lunch and drove back, having spent most of the morning and early afternoon there.
We said goodbye to our excellent Viareggio host, Roberto, and left for Trieste at about 9:30. It was a nice, sunny morning – perfect for our five-hour drive.We stopped in Rovigo, a city about three hours outside Viareggio and had lunch at Tavernetta Dante 1936, a small place where we were lucky to get a table. When we walked in and said we hadn’t called first, it looked at first as though we didn’t have a chance. After a moment, we were seated and content. The restaurant’s eight tables filled up quickly.The menu was included mainly fish dishes and we both decided on spaghetti with clams. Whenever I see tiny clams being served, it brings me back to my youth and growing up on the bay. Little clams there were seed clams and illegal to dig. This is certainly a different variety but I still reminisce about clamming in the bay.We continued our drive to Trieste, and it is so close to Slovenia we may check it out while we are here over the next few days. Now it is dark and we are happy to have easily found our lodging.
photos: Clams; a crazy 20€ ($25) lollipop at a rest stop; our neighborhood in Trieste at night
Still Carrying On 