They were all there and some other things besides. The asparagus and fennel could be had domesticated or wild; wild asparagus is shoestring thin, unkempt and grassy and *very* expensive--like 30 euros a kilo which is close to $20/pound. All the vegetables are piled high in beautiful arrangements and each farmer has his own area and his own call. Loud, melodious voices, shouting the virtues of his wares (and/or the silliness of touristas, something very amusing to the others anyway). No touching,just point to what you want and say one or two (uno o due) or whatever. Then they'll give you what they think you need or what they want to sell--two or three or a kilo.

But best of all were the fish displays and fish mongers. This is a fishing port and the catch looked good. Here's how to showcase your fish. First a sheet of plywood. Cover with crushed ice, set on sawhorses at a nice display angle. Arrange all the splendors of the sea carefully, but casually. In this lower corner, a tangle of calimari, opposite that a dense wash of black and silvery sardines, bordered by a few rows of slightly larger mackerel; across the top, rows of a trout-sized fish that curls into a shallow "C" when out of water. Across the bottom. anchor with pinkish-beige swordfish steaks or even assembled swordfish kabobs if you're ambitious. Counter their color on top with some nice leggy shrimp, some raw, some cooked. In the middle, anything else you caught or brought in for your buddy or father-in-law. If it happens that you caught an octopus or an eel, if gets place of honor in the upper middle. Place some greenery here and there and you're ready for business. There were at least eight or 10 of these displays. Who buys all this fish? Not us, I don't want to clean them. And I don't want to cook them either. I like to eat them though.

There are also cheeses and cured meat displays, but mostly these are sold in specialy shops, not in the market. And we did some of our shopping in a "super-market" which has the basics, lots of Bertolli products, for example. And toilet paper and paper towels, which are usually NOT supplied when you rent a self-catered apartment.

A lot of what we ate was street food that we brought home or just ate on the fly like Italians. This would be mostly panini, pizza, gelato and pastries (always flavored with custard when we kept hoping for that lovely Siricusian limone). After we discovered them at the local bar (bars are really cafes), we often had arancini. (Since I have no other photos for this edition, here is the sculpture again, with our little piazza--actually smaller than a piazza, only a largo, Largo Alfea--with our favorite arancini shop just above Alpheus' foot). These are wonderful little rice croquets, wrapped around a filling of spinach, mozarella and/or tomato/onion, sometimes with meat. This last one is called "forno" so you'd think there would be some baked something happening somewhere. There's not though. Here's a recipe for arancini from a Sicilian cookbook that Dawn bought. They were excellent and a staple for Dawn the four days I was pretty much down from the poison mushrooms. The rest of the time we survived on pasta with tomato sauce (that we made), blood oranges, asparagus and reggiano frittata and cheese and crackers. And the occasional meal in a restaurant. Some restaurant experiences next.

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