Bunnai's Travel Adventures: Rain Hits Atri (Oct. 22-23, 2014)

Yesterday, Thursday, we had a really pleasant day. The weather has gotten cooler, by quite a bit, and rainy. It was chilly getting up in the morning. We decided to give Gabriella and Graziano a call as we had kind of left getting together, open. I called and Gabriella said to come on over. I said it was so yucky out, that if they felt like having a visit, we would really like that. She seemed quite excited, and so were we. It had been a quiet couple of days that were great, but it was now time to get up and do something. Both mom and I were very engaged to do so. We showered, planned what time to catch the bus to Pineto, and got ready. It was really grey outside and kind of chilly so we dressed warmly, gathered our stuff and trudged off to the bus stop. It wasn’t raining when we left, so we didn’t take our umbrella. Of course, once we got to Pineto, it looked a bit threatening, but hadn’t broken yet. We wanted to stop at a bakery to take some yummy desserts to G and G, as we had been so thrilled when they brought desserts for us, the other day.

We stopped at two bakeries and collected an array of yummy treats, then continued our walk to their place. Just before we arrived, the rain really started to pour, so we put up our hoods and booked it…..lol. We arrived without issue, mom smelling like a wet chicken in her down coat, and me, feet soaked through my mesh runners, bought with hot Thailand in mind, that would be cool and let the air through. Ahahaha. Anyway, Gabriella met us at the door, not allowing us inside until we took off our wet outer wear, and laughing about how soaked we were. She was miffed that we hadn’t called them when we arrived in Pineto, for a ride. Really, it was no big deal, just wet on the outside, but happy and warm on the inside. Graziano took one look at us and laughed. We all greeted, and went inside.

Just our luck, Gabriella had hosted a dinner the night before and had cooked a whole bunch of yummy dishes that there were leftovers from. My dear friend, you are going to be so envious, as she made gnocchi Fiorientina and told us that these are what you request on your birthday. She does a really cool thing, cooking whatever someone loves most, for their birthday. I can truly see why you ask for these on your special day. Anyway, they were delicious and we totally chowed down on them. They are spinach, ricotta cheese and some flour and egg, rolled into little balls and cooked. They must take forever to make, but are amazing. They have a light meat sauce over them and I add pepperincino oil to them with some parmesan cheese. Awesome!

Gnocchi Fiorentina

A Hungry Customer

All the wonderful dishes at Chez G and G

As you can see by the photo, there was a whole lot of other yummy food as well. An incredibly tender steak, chicken with a light coating, rapini, green beans mixed with carrots and peas, as well as pasta with meat sauce. A meal fit for royalty, which we are not, but do feel so, when fed over there.

We all sat around the table chatting while it poured rain outside. It was so much fun and we laughed a lot during our conversation. I was kind of happy that the weather wasn’t so formidable, as it gave us a chance to just ‘be’ and enjoy one another’s company. I think we sat there for several hours. Through lunch, coffee and desserts, we chatted, enjoyed and regretted our soon coming departures from Italy. Ours coming on Sunday, when we will stay at their place overnight and catch a bus for Rome. There we will stay for three nights, before catching our respective flights. Mom will return to Winnipeg and I will go on to Bangkok. Wow, what a change that will be. Graziano and Gabriella return to Toronto for six months, on October 30th and were also very sad to be leaving Italy.

We wound up the visit around 5:00 pm, and Graziano insisted that they drive us back to Atri, as it was still pouring rain. We were grateful, but had intended on taking the bus back so he didn’t have to take out his car. He didn’t seem to mind and said that they hadn’t been out with the car since our last adventure, several days ago. We accepted with grateful hearts and jumped into the car to come home. We were still stuffed so we didn’t need dinner. Instead, we played Scrabble, then went up to my room and hung out in my bed, reading and doing leg massages for each other. We turned out our lights around ten o’clock. It was still cold out, and raining.

This morning, we woke up to yet more rain, and a fog so thick that you could barely see the buildings across the street from us. Mom came into my bed around 7:30, we dozed for an hour or so, then I read to her from my book that is so interesting. We finally got out of bed at 9:15 to make some coffee and move our stiff bodies. Since it was still so yucky out, we couldn’t go for our usual morning walk. After coffee, I did some more hand washing and we hung it around the house to dry. Then we cooked up some breakfast which was delicious. We had some mixed vegetables from the day before yesterday, and decided to heat them up with some eggs scrambled into them. It was perfect, and not too heavy. Then we played a couple of games of Scrabble. Good thing there were games, thanks for having the games downstairs for rainy days. A great way to pass time in an interesting way. Then we thought the rain was letting up slightly and took advantage of it, by dressing warmly and going or a walk with our umbrella.

We walked down to the park and took a pass around the park, before it started to get really windy and more rainy. We headed home after taking some pics in the park, got our wet stuff off, and sat down to write our blogs and emails. It seems that the sun might come out soon, or so we hope.