Working Girls

Sue, the self-proclaimed Skinny Wench of A Word in Your Ear blog, closed her eyes, opened the unabridged, let her index finger glide down the page where it stopped on the word WORKER — this week’s A Word-a-Week Challenge.

Marina Corricella - Procida, IT | ©Tom Palladio ImagesSunday, the one day out of seven when most people just chill and daydream about idyllic places in the sun that they’ll probably never reach. It’s the week’s “lazy day.”

Of course, not everyone got the “memo” about Sunday being a day of relaxation and imaginary flights of fancy.

There are lots of folk hard at work each and every Sunday all across the planet, and Bella Italia is no exception.

Around the Peninsula, small towns and big cities transform their main piazza (square) into a market or fair of some kind on any given Domenica (Sunday).

Piazza dei Signori - Vicenza, IT | ©Tom Palladio Images

Today, Vicenza’s Piazza dei Signori wrapped up hosting the fifth edition of the city’s three-day-long outdoor flowers and floriculture show: “Fiori, colori e…” (Flowers, colors and…).

Along with local and regional vendors selling flowers, shrubs and trees, and gardening gurus handing out green-thumb advice and brochures, there were the occasional non-floral stands, too: from hard salami to handmade jewelry, from bed spreads to dried fruits. The later is where I happened upon the two “working girls” in this working title.

Fruit stand employees - Vicenza, IT | ©Tom Palladio ImagesMeet Antonella (l) and Francesca (r), the two ladies that operate the Primaprimizia (the first ripened fruit of the season) stand from Monza.

Filled with dried fruit from harvested produce from just about every corner of the globe, this open-air storefront is just as colorful, if not more so, than its floral competitors.

Like desert nomads, these “working girls” move from city to city, market to market each and every Sunday selling their sweet, colorful, tasty morsels.

It’s hard to miss the stand with its large baskets of bright and bold colors, colors that look like they’ve leaped right off a van Gogh canvas.

Pause for a moment and you’ll be offered a sample. Once tasted, you’re hooked, and before you know it you’re walking away with a bag or two filled with a some of the best-tasting dried fruit you’ll ever savor, not to mention time well spent with the two friendly “working girls” of Primaprimizia.

©The Palladian Traveler

The Palladian Traveler's Borsalino over cobblestone | ©Tom Palladio Images

©Tom Palladio Images

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13 comments

    1. Emily — And, I’d be more than happy to share the two bags of dried fruit I picked up from those “working girls.” The colors on display at the floral show were amazing, but those dried fruit really caught my eye AND wallet. 🙂

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