Arezzo Antique Fair: the Final Curtain

Late afternoon on a breezy summer Sunday, Pino and I set out for Arezzo, a favorite southern Tuscan city. It was the first Sunday of the month, the day of the Fiera Antiquaria and we’d never been.
We were there to wander the booths lining the cobblestoned alleyways between Renaissance palazzi, not for a purchase.

There to wander the booths lining the Arezzo alleyways…..

At one of the first stalls, Pino leafed through a hefty 19th -century volume on his hometown, Palermo, curious to see the photos of a bygone epoch. Near an antique lamp and picture frames, a furled up Partito Socialista Italiano banner was another remnant of a bygone epoch: “Guarda questo pezzo di antiquariato,” (“Look at this piece of antiquity”), Pino said with a grin, referring to the Party’s demise in the early 1990’s.

Pino leafs through an antique book on his hometown, Palermo

“Look at this piece of antiquity…..!”

It was near the end of the day and most of the vendors were packing up; a couple were loading antique tables onto a truck, another was bandaging in plastic wrap a treasured life-sized gilded statues.

It was the end of day and most vendors were packing up….

And in the end, we came home with a purchase: a cutwork embroidery tablecloth that we ‘d use for a curtain for one of our apartment windows, still not draped. And it was ivory-colored, not white. Just what Pino had hoped for.