Day 122 - Sunday Markets, Family Runs & Simple Wins in Southern Italy

Day 122 started early. I was up around 5:30 and it was actually a nice quiet start to the day. I sat there on my own for a bit, trying to catch up on some of the dirt bike racing from the US that I like watching. The internet was playing up, which was frustrating at the time, but it ended up being a pretty simple fix later on.

Emmett was up around 6:45, Kia not long after at 7, and Maddie rolled in around 7:30. She is definitely enjoying a few sleep-ins at the moment. I got stuck into making coffees and that is when I figured out what had happened with the Wi-Fi. The power board that runs the microwave and the internet had been switched off. The night before, Emmett had knocked a water bottle over while playing a game and it must have hit the switch. The Wi-Fi unit must run on a small battery because it stayed on for a bit before dying, then needed time to reboot once the power came back. Anyway, mystery solved.

We got ourselves organised for a run, and as expected, Maddie wasn’t keen at all to start with. But we pushed through that part and got out the door. We headed right again and did a family run with 200 metres on, 100 metres walking. By the second effort, Maddie had completely flipped and was out the front, flying along, chatting and loving it. It’s always the same story, getting started is the hardest part.

At the 1km mark, Kia and the kids turned back while I kept going. I ran out to 2.5km and turned it into a 5km by the time I got home. When I got back, they were already into breakfast prep.

Maddie had decided she was making pancakes, and of course Emmett wanted in as well, especially since the little shop around the corner was shut and we couldn’t get bread rolls. The house was roasting by this point because the heater had been left on and the sun was out, so after the run I stepped outside for a bit to cool down.

While I was out there, I noticed the butcher down the road, which hadn’t been open all week, was suddenly open. I kept walking and saw another small grocery store open too, and they had fresh bread rolls. I basically jogged back, grabbed my wallet, and headed straight back out.

Neither the butcher nor the shop owner spoke much English, but with a bit of pointing and hand signals, I managed to get a few things sorted, including four fresh bread rolls. Back at the house, Emmett was just finishing his pancake, and I jumped in and made eggs and avocado on the fresh rolls. It was unreal. The kids smashed their pancakes too, they both did a great job.

After breakfast, we got ourselves ready to head out. We had spotted some markets on our run and wanted to check them out. We walked down and found a long stretch of stalls, probably a couple hundred metres, selling everything from clothes and socks to kitchen gear, jewellery, wallets, and leather goods.

On the way back, we decided to zigzag through a few different streets and ended up stumbling across a proper fruit and veg market as well. It was one of those moments where you realise you probably should have come here before doing a big shop at Eurospin. Lesson learned. Next Sunday, we’ll go local.

The town was absolutely buzzing. It felt like everyone was out. All locals, no tourists, just families, groups of friends, nonnas, everyone enjoying the sunshine. Tables and chairs were out everywhere, people sitting around with drinks and antipasto, just talking and enjoying the day. It had such a good feel to it.

I said to Kia that we should really lean into this and actually sit down and be part of it instead of just walking past. So we did. We grabbed a table at a place just near our accommodation and ordered an Aperol Spritz, which seems to be the go-to drink here. Bright orange, pretty strong, and yeah, definitely does the job. The kids had tonic with lime.

After a while, the kids finished up and wanted to head back, which was easy because we were only a couple of doors away. We let them go, and Kia and I stayed a bit longer, just chatting and trying to figure out what’s next for this trip. There’s a lot of conversations coming, trying to work out where we go, how we do it, and what we actually want. Nothing locked in yet, but we’ll get there.

We headed back for a late lunch, and I had found a go-kart track nearby that was open on Sunday afternoons. Emmett has been talking about go-karting for ages, so I was pretty keen to make it happen. We were just about to head off when we messaged them and found out they weren’t opening due to possible bad weather coming through. So that was a bit of a letdown, especially for Emmett, but we’ll find another opportunity. There are a few tracks around.

To finish the day, Maddie had planned for us to sit down and watch old family videos on our phones from when the kids were really little. That’ll be a good way to wind things down.