My stomping grounds

I know you are all dying to know what I've been doing at school but that will have to wait until tomorrow.. in the meantime I thought I'd give you a little tour of my neighborhood.
This is my backyard, Santa Croce. Today as you can see the sun was shining, for the first time since I've been here. It does look so much nicer with a blue backdrop.
One of the best parts about living in the Santa Croce area is having the Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio just steps away from the apartment. This is the inside where you will find several macellerie (butchers). I buy my tacchino (turkey) and prosciutto (I try to only buy it once a week) from the same people every other day. And every time, they compliment my Italian. I think they are used to Americans who can only say "ciao" (no offense, but it does make me look better!)
Outside, there are stalls with fruit and vegetable vendors. I try to go before school starts so I can have the best selection. I noticed by midday they are always out of bananas.
Monday when I went to the market, I bought the following: a head of lettuce, a head of radicchio, a cucumber that turned out to be rotten so that guy is blacklisted from selling me veggies from now on, 2 yellow peppers, 3 tomatoes, 3 apples, a bunch of bananas, and 3 pears, all for 10 Euro (which is a little under $15). That might buy my peppers and an apple at Gristedes or D'Ags!