Tarvisio

Well, we had quite the enjoyable Saturday. We decided to head out to Tarvisio for a leather market. I'm not quite sure why, but we didn't think much about where we were going - Tarvisio is further into the Alps on the Italian border with Austria. So, I wasn't quite dressed for all the snow.

Tarvisio was absolutely beautiful. There are lots of ski runs right off the main street, and there was a lot of Austrian influence throughout the town. Everyone thought we were Austrian or German right off the bat, and would try to speak German to us.

The leather market itself was slightly disappointing. They had a big tent set up, and all the vendors were inside. We were accosted immediately by one vendor selling leather jackets, so we decided to have fun and try some things on. Wrong move - he was very persistent, and when we tried to leave he just kept talking down the price and would not let us exit. So, we ended up buying leather jackets, but for a very good price. We need to get a backbone before we go to Turkey. I have a feeling that the merchants will be very demanding there, too.

We continued through the market at a fast pace, trying not to make eye contact with anyone else. There were a lot of regular clothing vendors trying desperately to sell jeans, which was annoying. Chris was a very big target, and all the vendors tried to swarm him, saying that they had "grande" sizes, while making gestures about his big shoulders.

After that, we found a great restaurant, and just enjoyed looking at the beautiful snow-covered hills all around us. It made for a great, expensive Saturday!