Road Trip with Friends (Oct. 16, 2014)

We got up quite early to catch the bus to Pineto to meet up with Graziano and Gabriella. They had planned to take a road trip with us to show us the little town where Graziano was born and grew up, until moving to Canada when he was 16. On the way was the computer shop that had called Graziano about my adapter part, so we managed to find it, near the Pescara airport, with some difficulty, and got that sorted out. Apparently, my cord doesn’t need a transformer, only an adapter to fit the Italian plugs. I was not totally convinced as mom’s works fine with the transformer as do out cameras, phones etc. So, I took back the adapter end, and purchased the Italian end as well, in order to avoid any further issues of not being able to charge the computer. Yeah!

Then we went on to drive through many little towns on the way to Graziano’s town, which is called Roccomorice. The towns we drove through were absolutely quaint and amazing. Since he had grown up in this area, Graziano was able to tell us many interesting facts about each place as we drove through. He pointed out various landscapes and included any historical facts that he knew of, along with it. It was an incredible drive with so many beautiful landscapes, architecture and tidbits along the way.

When we got to Roccomorice, it was breathtaking. Quite high up, it felt a few degrees cooler there, but fresh, fresh mountain air to breathe and a vista above a valley that was to die for. We walked around the square that overlooked the valley and took many photos. Graziano told us that when they were kids, there was no guard rail around the edge and that they used to play there. Incredibly, he said there were no accidents of kids falling over the edge, which I found remarkable. We proceeded to go to a lovely restaurant overlooking the valley, where you could see the view from three different directions. It didn’t matter where you sat, you could see mountains, valley and landscape. Graziano pointed out other small towns you could see from this vantage point. It was really cool.

Our lunch was fantabulous. It was so nice to be able to treat them to a nice meal, as Gabriella has cooked for us on so many occasions. I think she probably enjoyed not having to cook for once. We had three types of pasta for our prima plate, one was ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta, one was a spaghetti with a cheese and white sauce and saffron, and the third was my favourite, gnocchi with fungi and tartufa. Absolutely perfectly cooked pasta and super tasty sauces. 

For our second plate, we had them bring a combination of their various meats which were done on a barbecue and also amazing. There was tender pork, sausages sliced length wise which were not at all fatty, and finally, lamb that was amazing. We had some white wine and water with our meal and it was so incredibly pleasant just sitting there chatting and eating. To finish, we had coffee corretto which is coffee with a shot of some liqueur in it. We had sambucca in ours and it was such a fine end to a great meal. Everything was cooked perfectly and tasted wonderful.

Then we walked around the town and Graziano showed us many places that came with a story. Here was where he was born, there was where his grandmother had her grocery store, this place was the shoemaker, that place the butcher, another place where his aunt and uncle lived. It was the most incredible, private look into the town that one could ever hope for. What a wonderful place with a rich history and interesting personality. We could have never received such a fantastic, informative tour on our own, even if we’d visited this remote little place on our own. We were humbled by our luck and greatly appreciative to Graziano for sharing his history and life with us. We walked for quite some time throughout the town, including the graveyard which was fantastic and full of life………no pun intended.

After that Graziano took us for a drive super high up along a winding road, into the mountains. I think he said that it was over 6,000 feet in height and when we got to the top, there was a fountain that offered cold spring water collected from a mountain stream. It was so clean and crisp, as was the air, which was about 11 degrees cooler than in the little town we came from. The drive was steep but incredible and the landscape  around us was beautiful.

By the time we drove down, mom and I were pretty tired, and still very full from our huge and wonderful lunch. We came home, flopped on my bed, and read for a couple of hours. We went to bed in fairly good time, got up this morning, early, and decided to go for a walk. It was around 7:30 am and we hadn’t yet seen Atri at this time. It was a bright clear morning, so we quickly dressed, went for a walk, and then to Bar Rene for a cappuccino. So far a wonderful day.

Yesterday was so cool and so different. I love seeing things that the average tourist would never be privy to. It adds so much richness to this trip. Mom and I couldn’t stop talking about the drive and sites and history, for much of the evening. A great fortune for us!

Mom and me waiting for the bus to Pineto

View from Roccomorice

Another view from Rocco

Restaurant where we ate in Rocco

Our table

Owner of the restaurant with G & G

Mom standing in a doorway in Rocco (super small!)

Mom and G getting water from the well at mountain top

View this morning on our walk - Atri AM

Another view from our walk