Marina di Pietrasanta | A Weekend in May

Saturday market, Sunday bike, and the marina between Forte dei Marmi and Lido di Camaiore

The first cornetto on a Saturday morning in May is the one filled with apple, and I eat it dipped into a long coffee at the Margherita while the market two streets away begins its slow assembly under the plane trees of Piazza Villeparisis. The pastry has a coat of sugar on top of the sugar already inside it, and Sophia, sitting across from me with a cappuccino, has chosen the sfogliatella, which is the only honest answer when it’s fresh.

We are originally Hungarians. We do not believe in sweet breakfasts. We have lived here three years, and we still do not believe in them, but on this one morning a week, with the market noise drifting across the piazza and the vigili finishing their first pass of the streets in their reflective vests, we participate in this error and find that it is not entirely an error after all. The cornetto holds together for the first three bites. After the third bite, it becomes a piece of soaked bread, which is the point of dipping it. The man at the table next…