........FUN AT THE PRODUCE MARKETS !......Two views of an outdoor fruit & vegetable market in Venice --- OH, and there is a cardinal rule at such markets, YOU MUST NOT EVER, AND I MEAN EVER! TOUCH THE PRODUCE!! If you somehow do by accident, they will crack your knuckles with a ruler! Just Kidding about that part! But they will at the very least give you a stern warning or swear at you in Italian. This happened to me and other people I know in Rome and Venice, including my own mother in 1984, whom I had failed to warn about this rule until it was too late. I guess the Venetian produce seller didn't realize that I understood Italian, when he swore at my mother : "maledetti Americani!" (Damn Americans!) and a few other more "colorful" words too! He was then shocked when I spoke to him in Italian. Another woman we know in Rome got a whole head of cauliflower thrown at her head when she dared pick off the leaves from it, before weighing. That's another 'No, No', of course!

The reasoning behind this behavior and this rule is simply that if one touches the food, it spoils faster, so will be harder to sell. I can almost see their point in Venice, where everything costs so much to transport by boat. But customers sometimes like to pick their own produce themselves, NOT depend on what the seller selects for them, because HE often gives you some bruised or downright rotten tomatoes, for example, (again, an experience I've had in Italy too). And can you just imagine if the merchants acted like this in OUR country?? They sure wouldn't keep many customers!! We sometimes forget how lucky we are to be living in the USA for many things - and only realize this when we go abroad for an extended time.