Colin arrived on my birthday, just in time for lunch! (almost 30 hours of travel and straight into it) Giuseppina went above and beyond in the food department, happy birthday was sung in Italian and English, I blew out the candle on a beautiful cake and received an Italian leather handbag. A special way to celebrate this year, just being here and having Colin arrive was the best thing.
Tuesday we (plus Pietro, Teresa and Vincenzo) headed north 3.5 hours to Rimini. Pietro and Teresa's oldest daughter goes to Uni there. It was great to meet her, eat some local pasta and walk around the 'centro'. That's a 2000 year old bridge in the background there!
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| with Teresa and Alessia |
We also visited a church, the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna (40 minutes north). It is famous as it is one of the few surviving examples of early christian Byzantine art and architecture (547AD). The tiny mosaics making up the frescoes were truly amazing.
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| trying to take it in |
Wednesday was a Pollutri day.
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| the big boys, Antonio, Samuele and Riccardo |
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| the littlest boy, Ruggero |
Missing are the one year olds Anea and Francesca (photo next time!)
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| Giovanni's tool shed |
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| arrosticini, an Abruzzo speciality |
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| next year my tomatoes are going to have stakes like this! |
Thursday was a local exploration day. Anna and Giovanni took us to Roccascalenga so that Colin could see the Castle and beautiful hill top towns. A few different views of the castle, from the top and the bottom. We still get blown away by how old things are here, and you can climb on them and touch them and people have done so for centuries!
After a refuel of seafood for lunch we explored part of the Trabocchi Coast, a 70km stretch of Coastline from Ortono to San Salvo. The star attraction are complex working fishing platforms made of wood that sit over the water. Few are still used today and many have been converted to seafood restaurants.
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