A Little Bit Of This and That
We spent a week in Pineto supposedly at the beach. However we were disappointed to discover the beach was not around the corner and too far to carry the necessary equipment to avoid sunburn. We also didn’t have beach towels, probably something we should have remembered to bring!
Barbara broached the subject over dinner one evening and said she really wanted to go to the beach. She had researched several of the surrounding hotels and found one nearby with a reasonable rate and with the prerequisite chaise lounge chairs and umbrellas.
Now This Was Living the Good Life!
And I got to realize a wish – to see and swim in the Adriatic Sea
View from our window
Parking in Italy is as much a pain in the ass as it is in New York City but one of our best parking spots was at The Abruzzo Hotel when the clerk said, “Just park under the lemon tree”.
Enough sun, it must be time for lunch. Ah hhh Aperol Spritz, the preferred cocktail in Italy and our new summer favorite!
Sun, Sand, Sea and a Spritz Perfetto!
One morning we went out for coffee at a local Bar and were pleased that we didn’t have to go through elaborate explanations as how to make a Caffe Americano which is very different from ordering either caffe or American coffee. So that part was great but we went crazy for the spoons!
Made in Italy
Look how clever this is!
So we asked Mr. Good-Looking Italian where did he get these spoons? Unfortunately he said he couldn’t remember because he got them a long time ago and hasn’t been able to find anymore. Also he only had about 5 left – No wonder since the thought of nicking two of them fleetingly flew through our minds!
Pizza and Pasta are mainstays on the menus of most of the local restaurants in this little seaside town and we indulged in accordance.
Spaghetti Vongole per me
Pasta del’ la Mer per Barbara
And speaking of pasta, we took a trip to Rosetta degli Abruzzo, home to the Verrigni pasta company. I had done some research on the company before our trip and had written to the firm asking if we could visit the factory. Unfortunately due to insurance, the answer was no but we would be welcome in the showroom. The GPS helped us get there along with some directions from a local man; thankfully I understand destre and sinestre.
The Verrigni Pasta Factory
The Verrigni family has been producing artisanal pasta since 1898. What Barbara and I saw in that showroom was quite spectacular. There were bags and bags of pasta in all sorts of shapes, pasta made with whole wheat flour, pasta made gluten-free, pasta made with durum wheat flour and are bronze cut. The company also produces a line of government certified organic pasta and a refined line of pasta cut with gold. Yes, gold. I purchased a bag of chitarra, a unique cut of long pasta associated with Abruzzo. The nice young man who spoke English tried to draw a picture for showing me the difference between linguine, spaghetti and chitarra, but I’m still not clear. This year the company came out with a new shape, calamarata.
It does look like calamari doesn’t it without the sauce?
Our favorite cute place where you could get gelato or an Aperol Spritz, two of life’s greatest pleasures and the owner was a friendly man who liked to practice his English with us.
A Great Little Bar in Pineto
Wine, Beer, Gelato, Caffe, Aperol Spritz -It’s all here
We stopped in the night before we left for a last Aperol Spritz. When we got back to the apartment we had no lights! No electricity! I called our host, texted her. We had two candles. Good thing we had packed during the day. Of course now the food in the refrigerator would be spoiling and worse of all we couldn’t recharge our phones which I felt would be essential for a 3 hour drive tomorrow. We went to bed early like what else were we going to do?
By morning as we were packing up the car, the host had contacted the next door neighbor who came over speaking Italian (naturally), and even though we had flipped all the circuit breakers, there was an extra something in the closet that needed to be pushed or pulled. Nice BUT we were outta here.
We were off on a long journey to Umbria and spent some of that trip deciding what we might write in our review in Airbnb. If you recall…we had a morning of no gas, a half a day of no water, and a night of no electricity!
Perugia here we come!
To Be Continued…
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 