Thursday is market day in Senigallia. The market offers both food items and dry goods. The porticos of old Senigallia are lined with vendors selling clothing, kitchen items, table linens, and all sorts of other items. The fruit, vegetables, cheeses and meats are all sold in the round piazza. We cross the river Misa over one of the old stone bridges to access the old center of Senigallia. After Cinzia grabs a caffé in a pasticceria we work our way through the crowds crammed under the porticos and find our way into the piazza where the food vendors have set up their stalls.
This morning we buy some of the sweet datterini tomatoes, a couple bunches of arugula, several of the huge red and yellow pepperoni, and some black grapes. We also pick up a beautiful loaf of bread from one of the bakers. We’ll have this for lunch with prosciutto, mozzarella di bufala, and marinated artichoke hearts. Senigallia has an ancient fortification build in the center of the town which provided protection from invading forces. Today, they are setting up for a Panenostrum – The International Festival of Bread. The festa will take place around the fortress. It begins later this evening and will last for 3 days.
After lunch, and our risposo, we make our way back to the fortress to check out Panenostrum. Vendors are set up under white tents. They offer an array of products and offer us samples. In addition to bread bakers there are cheese and salami makers, wine and liquor makers, pastry makers, and venders with various jams and spreads. We try everything. Cinzia finds a Christmas gnome at one vendor, vino e visciole at another, and Lilla – a liquor made with lemon verbena at another. We fill a small shopping bag with these goodies. I find some cookies and, after sufficient samples, buy a couple with the names Fave dei Morti and Pane del Pescatore. I also find a vendor selling a variety of jams and spot a jar filled with whole figs that have been turned into jam using only sugar and lemon juice. The label says, “Fichi Caramellati” and a sign states that it was “homemade under the supervision of nonna”. I add it to our bag along with a bar of dark chocolate with hazelnuts.
The centerpiece of the festa is a large replica of St. Peter’s basilica and piazza made from wheat. We snap a few photos then grab a cannoli (made with ricotta di bufala, of course) on our way out. We agree that we’ve eaten enough samples at Panenostrum to skip dinner this evening. So we make our way to a bar just around the corner.
We’d stopped at Spaccio for an aperitivo one other night and Cinzia wants to have another of their Antico Spritz cocktails. Drinks in Italy almost always are accompanied with free snacks. And not just pretzels and beer nuts. Tonight we’re server a plate of cheesebread, mortadella, and cheese with a splash of aged balsamico along with two plates containing a pair of bite size pieces of perfectly cooked steak with a bit of pancetta in a bed of sautéed onions and grainy mustard. Now that’s what I call a snack! We finish our drinks and enjoy the lovely evening as we walk back to our apartment.