What were the “average” folks eating?
“Early in the morning, as soon as they heard the tolling of the bell in the Campanile known as the marangona after the carpenters who were the most numerous class of artisans in the city, the streets were filled with men on their way to work. At nine o’clock the marangona rang again to mark the time for their prima colazione; at twelve a bell sounded to summon the workers to their midday meal; and, three hours after sunset, another bell was tolled for the curfew. The meals eaten by workers were simple enough, composed largely of vegetables, fruit and bread but sometimes including dishes of beef and pork, kid and wild boar, fowls from Padua, and, more often, fish–mullet and sole, pike and carp, gudgeon and tench, sea scorpion and flounders–accompanied by the sweet, strong wines of Crete. As in kitchens elsewhere in Europe food was highly spiced with ginger, nutmeg and coriander, cloves and cinnamon, pepper and anise, and all kinds of herbs, and with roots, seasonings and condiments fr
