
...is a ghost town! Sergio is taking his annual break - leaving his shop door wide-open behind the grille while he's away, to air the place out - as is Claudia ( so pasta is off the menu for the foreseeable future) , and the fruit and vegetable market is practically deserted. To the extent that you almost expect to see tumble-weed blowing gently around the place, amongst the ghostly remnants of the deserted stalls. Antonella has disappeared - presumably off to Ischia, as usual - as has the stallholder next to her, and the one next to that. This morning, the usual bustle around the cut-price clothes stalls in Vettovaglie was missing, and I wondered why th


Of course, this annual exodus means that menu planning and provisioning at this time of year become a little like drawing up and executing a military strategy. Sergio is back on Wednesday, so that's ok, but then Maurizio disappears for his break on the eleventh, and the fish shop will be closed after the seventeenth, right through until next month! And then, to cap it all, the fifteenth of this month is Ferragosto, at which point anybody who's still around closes for the day anyway........celebrating the birth of the virgin, I believe. It won't be tumble-weed blowing around the deserted streets on that day, but groups of tourists, wandering bemused at the fact that not even a cafe

However.......the weather is blissful - apart from the dramatic thunderstorm yesterday morning, when the heavens ripped open and it rained chair-legs (as the Greeks would say); but even that was rather splendid in its intensity - and the sense that every day is Sunday has its definite good points. The garden is flourishing, and ripe with huge agapanthus globes and the

Tonight's Dinner:
Garlic Prawns.
Baked Sea-Bass, with braised Fennel.
Fig Ice Cream.