Ventimiglia for birthday gelato

Of course we went to Ventimiglia for gelato.

Passing through the only town between Menton and Ventimiglia, a blink-your-eyes-and-miss-it town called "Latte". The girls can't get over a town called "milk".

We went for the Friday market and within 10 minutes we discovered that Mesha's wallet had been stolen right out of her purse. A lady at a nearby stall said it happens often but the police don't know how to stop it. After searching the trash cans in a nearby park and finding two emptied purses we wondered how the police couldn't get a hold of the problem. We had seen a set of police in the market, but they obviously weren't very effective. Nikki spotted some rif-raf-looking young men and she and Geoff pursued them into the vendor streets. Within a few minutes they saw them steal some goods off of a table and put them in a backpack. Geoff told the vendor who immediately grabbed one of the three boys and dumped the contents of his bag on his table. There were dozens of new wallets, sunglasses, belts, etc. The other two boys got away and hid in an alley. Geoff and Nikki watched them and decided to approach them in the alley. The boys were Arabs from France so Geoff asked them what the heck they were doing; they were going to ruin their lives; they were caught and would get in big trouble; they had called the police and it was just a matter of time until the police arrived. The boys were nervous. Geoff told them he wanted them to empty their bags. They said no. Geoff said that was OK, they would just wait until the police arrived. The boys decided to cooperate and empty their bag and again, loads of new stolen goods fell out. Geoff told them to empty their pockets. Again they said no. Geoff reached for his back pocket and, the boys thinking he was reaching for a gun (they are now wondering if Geoff and Nikki are undercover cops), they quickly emptied their pockets. Just keys, sunglasses and cigarettes. No sign of Mesha's wallet. One thing is for sure...Geoff and Nikki could have the Ventimiglia thief problem taken care of in a month!


They were a bit skittish while eating gelato...after all, the police never did come and all the boys were released and who knows if they have more friends and would come after Nikki and Geoff!

We went to the Ventimiglia market before heading home.