I love how when you first get to a town it seems big and everything is far away. As you become more familiar, the town seems to shrink around you. That’s what’s starting to happen here in Udine.

We started out for some coffee. I had studied Fred Plotkin’s excellent book, Italy for the Gourmet Traveler and he has a whole page about coffee in central Udine. I stopped at Bar Housbrandt, just across from Piazza Matteotti and enjoyed my macchiato very much.

There is a daily market in Piazza XX Settembre so we strolled around and ended up there. It was very lively with people buying produce etc. Also, people campaigning. I was approached 3 times and asked if I was voting only to reply, sorry I am American.

I bought some vegetables, (precut in a bag but so not industrial) and beautiful dried beans from one seller and went to the “cheese guy” next. That was really fun! The man was so friendly and teasing me about my accent. I got two kinds of goat cheeses–one aged and one fresh but not spreadable. At the end of our transaction, we were joking and laughing and he asked me about Trump. I said I don’t like him and he said “I don’t like him either. He is a real Fascist!” and he made a joke which I couldn’t quite get in Italian. The conversation went on but it felt good to me that even here, Trump’s true colors are apparent. Here’s the cheese guy:

I didn’t buy any of these white asparagus, he was doing a swift business:

We came back to unload our goods and take a few minutes to rest. It was chilly and threatening rain so we chose a place for lunch that was pretty close. La Ghiacciaia (it means ice house) is right next to the little canal through town and has lovely outdoor seating but we sat inside.

We got there about 10 til 1:00 and by ten after they were full and turning away people. It was a great lunch although we ordered way too much. The daily special was fried sardines and they were crispy, salty and delicious:

Ken had really good meaty goulash and we also had roasted potatoes, red beans and fabulous greens. It was a very satisfying but we were stuffed!

We walked after that, window shopping and people watching. Came back to the apartment for rest time. We went for one more walk later on but it was raining so we cut it short.

I cooked some bland chicken vegetable soup for dinner but it was fine for us.

Hope the rain passes!