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Posts Tagged ‘gelato’

Bits and Pieces of Pineto

Posted in Travel-Where in the World are Peterlori?, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 1, 2019| 2 Comments »

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.

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Now This Was Living the Good Life!

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And I got to realize a wish – to see and swim in the Adriatic Sea

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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!

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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!

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Made in Italy

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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.

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Spaghetti Vongole per me

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A Great Little Bar in Pineto

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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…

 

 

 

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The Boys on the Bike.

Posted in Travel-Where in the World are Peterlori?, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on June 20, 2019| 3 Comments »

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Our Last Night in Guardia

The day had finally come, my last one in Guardia Sanframondi.  Over the the last two weeks, so many expats left;  Mike Simon went home today, Michael left two days ago, Sharon from Chicago left last week, Linda and Mike from Nova Scotia left,  Dan went back to England, Judith returned to Northern California, Marsha and Chris went home to NJ, Glen went back to Canada, Kelly headed to Rome,  I guess It  was time for me to leave too.  Many of those mentioned above will return in the fall for the harvest of the grapes and the olives,  I wish I could too!

I sorted out the food, some to Anna, some I could take to Pineto with me.  I had bought a lot of things while I was at Nonna’s House, things you need if you are going to live there because it is not a hotel and the kitchen really didn’t have a lot of  everyday items you need if you are going to cook.  I kept telling Peter I would ask Pasquale for the money although I kinda knew I wouldn’t. As I did discuss with him that I had made many purchases, he suggested he would put them all in a box with my name on it – a Lori box, it will be here for you when you return.  I thought that was so sweet as well as good salesmanship

Pasquale suggested we all go out for dinner that night to celebrate out last night. He would take us to a restaurant in Telese that served Florentine steak. I was up for that and hoping they really knew how to cook it and not over cook it like the veal I had that has to come from the cow not the calf. I cut it up and threw it to the dogs next door!

We are on our way…. First hugs and kisses with Anna, Pasquale’s mother just in case I don’t see her in the morning.

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Anna and me in the BAR.

Dawn is driving me and Joel is on the back of Pasquale’s new motorcycle. I told Dawn to be prepared, I was pretty sure we were in for a real “ride”.  Sure enough just as we head out of town Pasquale makes a sharp left down a steep hill, and the road twists and turns.  This is a really old road, one that goes from the town all the way down the mountain to the river!  Pasquale and Joel were zipping along, you would have thought they were racing for gold.  We tried to stay with them but common sense prevailed.

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They hardly enjoyed themselves as you can tell.

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Prepping for the ride back

The restaurant was great looking, not like any we had come across so far. The decor was a fusion of country farmhouse and Italian rustica.  Pasquale picked out four cuts of steak for us and we added insalata, chips, escarole and wine. What a feast! Heartily enjoyed by all right down to gnawing on the bone to get that tender rare meat.  If you are not in Firenze, and you want a great Steak Florentine, you must go to IL FIASCO DI VINO a Telese Terme.

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What a fun date!

The whole evening was wonderful and of course there is always room for gelato. AND Pasquale bought dessert, he took us to a special gelato place.  I love ice cream as any reader of my blog knows.  He remarked that all the Americans who come only want gelato for desert, why?  Perchce mangiare il gelato e come fare sesso!

To Be Continued….

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This City is A Haven For Addicts!

Posted in BY THE WAY, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 17, 2014| 2 Comments »

Every street corner has its regulars, a place where the cool hang out and those that know what they’re looking for, know where to look for it.  New York is filled with those street corners ready and welcoming to all addicts.  In a City That Never Sleeps one never need go without.  It’s all here, yours for the taking and the right price. 

Drugs you say?  Are you kidding me?  This is a PG-rated blog or at least it was until yesterday!  No smack, coke, grass, ice, beans or  caviar here!  Hey that stuff is illegal…now that we live in a city where our former mayor squelched one potential bad habit after another, there’s only two  or three legal addictions left that flourish.  It was touch and go there while the battle to ban super size cups of soda raged on and that would have deprived all of the aspartame junkies.   You can’t smoke in restaurants or virtually any public place, and forget that trans-fat craving – they’re gone too!

No, I’m talking about, yes you guessed it, ICE CREAM.  This is one hell of a I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream kind of place.  It’s my paradise, my utopia, my Shangri-La, my Camelot, my Avalon, this is my City, where every color, kind, flavor, soft and hard ice cream, not to mention gelato peacefully co-exist and are all here for my indulgence!

Of course every grocery store, market and bodega carry ice cream, frozen bars and popsicles.  Mr. Softee trucks are parked just outside major subway stops.  And then there the standard franchised ice cream stores like Carvel, Ben & Jerry’s and local shops like Emack & Bolio’s,  and Sedutto, all a haven for me and the rest of the ice cream junkies in New York City.  If you’re  shopping at Eli”s you can sample some of his creamy gelatos or while eating a hamburger at  Danny Meyer’s  Shake Shack, you can grab one of his daily homemade flavors of frozen custard.

But the worst places or the best places depending on what Step you’re on in your program, are the recent blossoming of  these help yourself , all you can eat soft yogurt store fronts!  We got Yogurt Land, 16 Handles and Off The Wall,  – they’re the equivalent of ancient opium parlors.  Just imagine walking into one of these multi-flavor palaces of sensory pleasure.  What would you do?  

I know what I do!  You take one of their large cups and you walk around in a daze, gazing at the walls with their colorful graphic cards describing the flavors and the gleaming shiny chrome handles and spigots.  I used to think Baskin & Robbins was heaven on earth with their 55 flavors to choose from but I was wrong because for all those flavors the most you could get on a cone  or a cup is two, three at the most.

But not in one of these delicious dispensers, oh no…you can pull down those handles and add coconut frozen yogurt and then add pistachio and then Dutch chocolate and then mango and then…well you get the picture, don’t you?  Pretty soon, those creamy cold coils of flavored yogurt are piled up one upon another.  On your way to the check out counter where they weigh your cup (you pay by the ounce), you pass a vast array of various toppings like M & M’s, gummy bears, cocoanut, chocolate syrup and much more.  I just pass right by these distractions because why would I ever want to mask the flavors of my frozen yogurt picks?

Summer in the City is my Nirvana!  If you’re an ice cream junkie, this place is for you!  Welcome to my world.

Menchi's Frozen Yogurt

Menchi’s Frozen Yogurt

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