Since we came here last fall, I've bought all sorts of unknown or untried food at the markets.  Purple carrots that stained my hands the color of raspberries for a week; what I thought were giant parsnips, simply called "Roots", that turned out to be inedibly bitter; Fava beans, (Hello Clarice), that proved rather tasteless; long, flat beans that were really tender and tasty that I haven't been able to find again;  and yesterday, Loquats.  Loquats look like skinny Apricots with black belly buttons but they taste like oranges.  Every week we try a new type of cheese.  There are over 400 in Italy.  I avoid anything with blue or black lines through it or that moves on it's own.  This morning it was duck eggs, a gift from our neighbor whose parents have a little farm.  They're sort of "super eggs", bigger and stronger tasting than chicken eggs.  Have I talked about these neighbors?  They live next door, to the right of us when sitting on our patio.  As I mentioned, there is little to no privacy here.  Our gardens are divided by 6 foot hedges but the patio area only has large pots with evergreens in them.  We can hear everything that goes on all around us and vice-verse.  Thankfully, our neighbors on either side are very nice and respect our privacy.  However, these particular neighbors, generous duck egg sharers, have two very talkative children.  Sophia is about 7 and Stefano is 4.  They are really cute and generally well behaved but they're also precocious and chatter incessantly.  When I'm outside gardening they follow me up and down on their side of the hedge, peeking through the leaves and asking me questions.  Lots and lots of questions.  Their mom works in a pharmacy and dad used to own a bunch of photo shops until everyone went digital.  Now he has just one shop and works as a landscaper-gardener.  Two years ago he saw me playing in the dirt out here and decided to change careers, so he took a course in tree pruning and bought a truck.  Now he's an expert.  He gives me free stuff so I'm not complaining.  Today we are going to see one of the numerous royal hunting lodges outside of Torino.  These royals liked their hunting.  Hopefully it will be open.  xxoo me