The Silly Season

Samu and I spent Friday afternoon at the Locarno markets. Although I'd rugged up, I still forze and after about an hour I protested that I needed to go sit inside a warm café. We ordered hot chocolates and Samu smoked a cigarette. The place was full of old ladies eating desserts. Afterwards it was back into the cold.

The stalls were screaming Quaint. With fairy lights hanging all around them and home-baked cakes and jars of secret recipes for fig and chestnut jam arranged on checkered tablecloths. Samu bought a packet of cous cous, hand-made soaps from Egypt, beeswax candles and several jars of marmelade. My purchases consisted of chestnut cream, a Gritti-Bünz (which is a traditional sweet bread in the shape of a man) and a hand-made panettone that was decorated with dark chocolate and candied fruit.

Samu and I browsed the entire old city centre, getting cold whilst admiring the many stalls and evaluating the merchandise on display. Finally, I seduced her into savouring a fulte of Champagne. The wine was enhanced by the tangy fresh juice of pomme-grenades. Simply divine! But when the bells in the old church tower struck six, we headed back to Lugano for an aperitivo at Penel, my favourite wine bar, near home.