BORLOTTI BEANS
Just northwest of the Cinque Terre villages is the Italian Mediterranean resort town of Levanto. It has a much larger market than any of the villages and is an ideal place to shop if you are staying more than a couple of days in the region. We were in an apartment in Manarola for a week and needed to constantly stock up. Levanto's market was quite colorful, like these borlotti beans, but when buying fresh porcini mushrooms, since you are not allowed to select for yourself, it would be a big help to be fluent in Italian, speaking like a local. Otherwise you will end up, as we did, being taken for a ride and given wormy mushrooms.
Copyright 2011 by William Tenney. All photography, artwork, images, and sound recordings on this site are the property of William Tenney.
