Retrospective Adventures

A quick note to say my guilty conscience will not permit me to escape the fact I have been neglecting my poor blog. I know you are sick of opening this page and seeing another episode of "Vasto and the Choco Kebab", but fear not, for I intend to begin my retrospective blogs of adventures that have been.

They may not be as detailed, though maybe this is a good thing, but do watch this space for entries on: Hamburg, Bucerius, Bremen, Denmark, Poland, Berlin, Tuscany, Milan, Lübeck and Lüneberg. They are work in progress...

Vasto and the Choco Kebab

Vasto, like most other towns in the area, is broken into two parts: the first is the town itself, perched up on the hill, and the second is the marina or beach, which comes alive only for i mesi estivi or “summertime”. Whilst in Fossacesia, we went to Vasto on two occasions, most likely because it is more than 30km away from our house, though it beats me how this becomes “a quick 20 minute drive away” when petrol costs almost NZD$3 a litre and it clearly takes more than 40 minutes to arrive.

The first time we went to Vasto was with Salvatore, Federica and their parents and grandparents. After driving past fields of sunflowers (which were well beyond their days of beauty), endless crops of corn, olive groves and vineyards we made our way into the main shopping district of the old town centred around none other than a medieval castle. It will never cease to amaze me how Italians can wander around tiny cobbled streets, and just genuinely be so oblivious to their surroundings without even realising they are shopping inside a castle. Though I guess if you don’t anything different you would just accept it as the norm.

Afro and I found a cute wooden Pinocchio in the street

A church in the piazza beside the shop where we found Pinocchio

In other words, what I’m trying to say is that the town of Vasto is amazing. Little streets weave around the dusty stone buildings, linking various piazze together, and eventually lead to the city limits on the very edge of the cliff. From here there is a magnificent view looking out onto the Adriatic Sea and the Vasto Marina below and the entire walkway around the hillside is lined with bars, pizzerie and restaurants.

The view from Vasto, the main lights in the centre are the marina

Afrodite, me, Salvatore and Federica, the view is (not) in the background

We have been back to Vasto on one other occasion to go shopping for a birthday present for Campbell. Despite the stress of having one hour until the shops closed due to poor organisational skills, plus the fact that there were three other carloads of people that had decided to come (the same as had previously been involved in the Lanciano/pizzeria/aperitivi incident), I did manage to find something at the very, very last minute. I can’t mention it on here though because I was exceptionally intelligent yesterday and flew out of Italy without it… Nonetheless I will make sure to mention the details once it has arrived safely in Hamburg. I say “safely” because I have absolutely no faith in the Italian postal “service“ after all the catastrophes that happened last time I was there. The worst part is, insurance is exorbitantly priced (read: super high risk). I will keep my fingers crossed.

On both occasions, after exploring the town, we drove another 15-20 minutes back through the countryside and down along the coast to get to the marina to get dinner. While the town is consistently as lively and jubilant as the times I saw it, the lungomare is only ever as crowded as it was in summer. For at least one and a half kilometres the entire sidewalk, which is about 6m wide, is covered with people selling useless or fake goods, upright open umbrellas covered in jewellery, street artists, crêpe stands, various other fast food outlets, and little markets. On the way to the place we were looking for, I came across this really exciting candy caravan that extended far beyond candy and into the realm of granita of every flavour imaginable, fresh made candyfloss, and freshly made croccante (bars of roasted almonds stuck together with a dark, sugary syrup) and other sweet roasted nuts. 

The crazy candy caravan

Freshly made candyfloss

We ate at a caravan which sells kebap (not a typo – they are also called this in Germany), piadine, arrosticini, panini, hamburgers, salsicce, fries, crêpes, soda, beer…basically anything unhealthy, you can find it here. With the way I eat, it was next to impossible to find something that I would like. The first time I stuck to the lamb arrosticini, which is never a wise decision when you don’t like lamb to start with. They were like oily gristle on sticks. Luckily Lina managed to get me a nice salad of lettuce, chunks of tomato and a few slices of raw onion. I relied on a giant tray of fresh watermelon to satiate me afterwards.

By the next time we returned, they managed to outdo their first salad, and I was smarter and chose a chicken fillet thing, but there is no way I can forget how close this Italian fast food caravan came to being American. I have never seen anything like it there before. Speaking of American things, it surprised me to find out that they have never even heard of Subway or KFC. I completely forgot they didn’t exist in Italy, though it’s weird because both chains exist across all three borders.

Back to Vasto. The first night we were there, Gino came running up to me to tell me all about how beautiful the moon was. At first I dismissed him, thinking I had already seen a red moon, but his insistence made me go with him and it was so incredible. Not only was it a fire-y red/orange colour, it was also really low on the horizon and reflecting off the perfectly still sea so that there was an equally bright reflection floating towards the shore. I walked to the end of an old wharf at the back of “Luna Park” to get a photo of it, but I couldn’t get it right. I think one day soon I will need to take photography lessons. It is much harder than it looks.

Once we had finished our meals, we left Gino at the table to finish watching his soccer match with all the other men who had vanished from their respective tables and went to look at the little markets. We then had to wait while the crystals that Salvatore and Federica had purchased for each other were being engraved with their names before migrating to the main crêpe stand.

The waffle stand, crêpe stand in background.
Sorry, I don't know who those people are in my photos!

Not only do they sell crêpes of every flavour you can imagine, as long as it includes Nutella or some other form of chocolate (white or black), they also sell waffles, brioche, choco kebabs and trays of fruit (for me!). Now waffles are just like everywhere, except they ones there are really chunky and generally drenched in nothing other than more Nutella, or white chocolate…or liqueur, I think. But choco kebabs…they were something different and were in need of photos for explanation.

Choco Kebab stand

First, the lady makes a fresh crêpe, though it is much thicker and much yellower. Then the following process takes place:

In the left is the rotating chocolate slab (like the meat for a
normal kebab). It is then shaved with a peeler,
you can see the peels at the bottom of the slab

Chocolate sauce is added (above)
Piles of chocolate shavings placed on top

Cream and caramel sauce squirted on top of liquid and shaved chocolate
Looking back at this photo...sorry...it's a bit of an unfortunate shot

Kebab folded, inserted into cardboard holder to
prevent leaks, and eaten. Absolutely guilt free.

No. I did not try the choco kebab.

With this, the night was completely finished, and we got home just after 1am. The next time we went back, Afrodite decided instead on a normal Nutella crêpe, and then shared it with Lina. I think the choco kebab is a once in a lifetime experience.

Even though we didn’t get that long to explore Vasto or marina we all still had a very enjoyable time. I would have liked to have gone on some of the cute little rides at Luna Park, but I will save my theme park adventures for Hamburg and Götheburg. From what I have seen, they will push my adrenalin to the absolute limit.

I’m sorry for these final two Italy blogs being completely out of place. Tanning can be very time-consuming. But tomorrow I can finally start my Deutsch-blogging!

P.S. Hamburg is really, really cool.

Exploring Lanciano

During my stay in Fossacesia, Lanciano is the town we visited the most. We went there at least twice every week, but every time we went was for a different reason. Last Saturday we went with three other carloads of friends to visit the two main churches in Lanciano: one which claims to have the “Eucaristic Miracle”, the true life and blood of Jesus, and the other which is just another big old Italian church across the road.

First church, bar where we had our aperitivi in bottom left corner

The life and blood of Christ

The second church: this is where they had the tug-of-war championships

During the second stop, Lina decided to stay behind for Mass, so Gino and I went for a wander around the town to look at the shops in an unsuccessful search for presents. To arrive back at the church in time to collect Lina, we walked along a little sidewalk attached to an old part of the town. From the sidewalk you can see down a valley where there was once a river and there is a really good view of the perimeter of the old quarter of Lanciano.

The back alleyway, the tower is the bell tower beside the church (above)
Over-exposure is because it was getting dark and we were in a hurry

The view of the old quarter from the alleyway, beneath is the dry riverbed

Since it was getting quite late, Lina and I decided to get an aperitivo at a nice bar on the corner opposite the churches. This turned into a bit of a disaster, however, because even after waiting half an hour for Gino to arrive, we didn’t realise (1) that he wasn’t coming, or (2) that everyone else was waiting for us in a pizzeria. By the time we finally figured out that 15 people we were waiting for us because they didn’t know the way to get back home, we had only enough time to hurriedly drink and eat the copious amounts of food that had accompanied our campari soda, and Lina stole the rest in napkins.

We went for a drink and look how much food they gave us.

Even when you go for a drink here they bring out plates of cut vegetables, dips, olives, fried vegetables, piadine, tramezzini, little prawn sandwiches, pastries…everything. For those of you wondering how you can stay thin here when faced every minute of the day with incredible food, it takes incredible willpower.

After losing much dignity in the fancy bar we rushed off to the car with everyone else trailing behind to collect Afrodite and go to the pizzeria at the top of the hill beside San Giovanni in Venere. We arrived around 10pm and didn’t end up leaving until well after midnight. On the way back to the car, I was lucky enough to see a shooting star, though I’m not sure I was quick enough at making my wish.

The next time we went to Lanciano was to get a gelato with a couple of other couples (Lina’s friends). The reason we went all the way to Lanciano just to get gelato is because there is a particular gelateria which has a famous flavour of gelato called nutellone, which basically means nutella mixed with cream etc to form a non-freezable form of gelato that is layered with a white version of the same thing. I couldn’t stand even looking at it, and instead chose fondente (dark chocolate) and amarena, but I did try it…and it was as awfully rich and nutella-ish as it looked. It is the worst excuse to eat Nutella that I have seen in Italy thus far. They are Nutella fanatics here, I swear.

That night we also went for a walk down past the churches into the medieval part of the town. Unfortunately I didn’t take my camera because I thought I had seen everything there was to see in Lanciano, but this was seriously cool. It’s like going back in time when you walk through certain streets in Italy. Even if most Italian cities have become more modern, the small towns manage to maintain their authenticity. It’s not just how the town looks, or the way it’s structured. You can also see that the way they live in these towns is completely different. We even saw a church that had a plaque saying the King of Naples had opened it in 1816.  In fact, this summer there were even more festivals because Italy celebrated the 150^th anniversary of its unification.

Our final visit to Lanciano was on Sunday evening, though I briefly mentioned this in a previous entry. We watched the annual medieval tug of war championships and had more aperitivi at the same bar because they are so delicious.

All in all I have now seen Lanciano in several different ways on several different occasions. It has some pretty amazing shops, but sadly they were not open when I intended to do some shopping on Sunday. Though on second thought, maybe that was for the best.

One more blog to go for Italy!

Arrivederci Fossacesia

Tonight is my last night in Fossacesia. Tomorrow morning we are going back to Naples, and then on Tuesday I fly out to Hamburg. I don’t know whether to be excited about starting my exchange and seeing my long lost boyfriend again, or to be horribly upset that I have to once again be torn away from my Italian family. Instead I am choosing to enjoy the time I have left with them and trying hard not to wish away the hours.

The last couple of weeks here have been as perfect as ever: sunshine every single day, not a droplet of rain, lots of fresh delicious food, and lots and lots of sunbathing. However, believe it or not, our lives do extend beyond tanning and eating. Well, kind of. Most nights we go out to visit some town nearby, and eat…though we haven’t been to any more sagre or anything since the last time I posted a blog.

We have been to Lanciano, a big town nearby, several times to visit churches, drink aperitivi, and eat gelato. In fact, we went back to Lanciano tonight and managed to arrive in time for the annual medieval tug of war championships between the four quarters of the old town. The city of Lanciano turns three thousand and something years old this year if that helps you to understand just how medieval the town really is. I will write a separate blog for Lanciano. We have also been to a town called Vasto two times, though I will also post separately about these trips because it is too amazing to cram into this entry.

Meanwhile, back in Fossacesia, Afrodite went home on Friday, the same day that Vincenzo (her older brother) arrived. While Afro was still here we went to a locally famous restaurant along the coast to wait in line for an hour for la frittura di pesce and other assorted seafood delicacies.

Here you purchase your food. The line was much longer when we arrived

Here you eat

La frittura

Stuffed cuttlefish: yes, it is edible, but I wouldn't go crazy over it

That day was also Salvatore’s 22^nd birthday, and his girlfriend (of 7 years!!!) had made him a ginormous cheesecake and another cake in the shape of a plait that was filled with amarena crema, so we stopped by their place afterwards to join the party, eat some cake, and drink spumante.

Noi, le ragazze

The amarena plait cake the Federica made (the girl on the left above) 

We continued on downstairs to the lungomare to have a look at all the food stalls and waste enough time before the Fossacesia fireworks display at 1am. The fireworks, although not as grand as the Ortona ones, were still incredible. The thunderous booms ricocheted off the hills and echoed across the sea, as fireworks were fired from the shore into the sky. I was extremely impressed by the water-activated fireworks that were fired consecutively into the sea, and then begin to spin and fizz before exploding one by one in the same order they were fired. The finale was the best part (as always) with two sets of fireworks above and fireworks exploding non-stop out of the sea. I think Wellington should look into using this type of firework, if they aren’t too environmentally damaging.

In terms of long Italian lunches, I thought I was safe after Ferragosto, but then Lina’s friends upstairs, Raffaele and Carmela (Lina), invited us and many others to lunch on Thursday. Little did I know they had organised so much food. Whilst waiting for everyone to arrive, we sat at the table outside on the balcony to admire the view and nibble on some aperitivi. Once everyone had finally arrived copious amounts of pasta started coming out of the kitchen: penne with a tomato and mince sugo, sprinkled with fresh parmigiano. My gluten intolerance saved me from this plate as I have never been a fan of mince and tomato.

The view from Raffaele and Carmela's terrazza

Raffaele and Carmela, nonno and nonna, when we went to eat la frittura

Next we had peperoni gratinati which are slices of grilled capsicums, stuffed with a mixture of prosciutto, mozzarella and egg and then sprinkled with bread crumbs and baked. Lina made me a nice salad with lettuce, carrots and pinenuts and then brought me some of this delicious zucchini frittata she had made before passing it on to the rest of the table. I always feel so guilty, but Lina likes to worry for me and make a big fuss about getting me something to eat that I will like. It’s really cute, and I will miss having my own personal chef when I leave tomorrow, though I have watched closer this time to try and replicate these culinary creations of hers.

Peperoni gratinati

Almost most of the table, after the second course

For the secondo piatto there was more salad and lots of weird meats, including skinny pink sausages, unrecognisable pancetta, arrosticini and pork fillets. I reluctantly accepted a bit of the pork (due to my full stomach), and considered becoming a vegetarian.

After a bit of frutta, a giant straciatella mousse cake was handed out, followed by cups of gelato from the Dolce Vita: Bounty, Wild Berry Yoghurt and Hazlenut flavours. I also tried a bit of an amaro (bitter digestive) called Genziana, which is made from a special herb and typical to Abruzzo. It is now my favourite amaro because it’s really light and really aromatic, so when I found a tiny bottle of it in Ortona, I purchased some for Campbell to try too. I couldn’t last for the rest of the afternoon and had to go to bed because I wasn’t feeling well, but it was a very enjoyable afternoon filled with the usual Neapolitan antics.

Apart from this lunch, I have spent most of my time learning German on the beach morning and afternoon, perfecting the art of sunbathing, swimming hundreds of metres out into the sea with Gino to float on the clear, calm water, picking and eating fresh figs from the trees in the driveway, and watching the sun set on a quiet part of the beach late in the evening.

Fresh fico

In Fossacesia, the sun sets behind the hills and the sky turns into
a rainbow of colours

I have also walked up to San Giovanni in Venere, the abbey on the hill, during the daytime to get a better picture of the view and to see the inside of it. These photos give a much better idea of what the area is like:

The view of Fossacesia Marina from the lookout

The main entrance to the abbey

Speaking of returning to places, on Friday evening we went back to Ortona to have a look around the shops and the main church, though I wasn’t allowed to enter because my shoulders were showing. Nevertheless, I now have a few photos of Ortona by day – it is the place where we went for the amazing fireworks display.

The church that I couldn't visit

Gino, Lina, Vincenzo and Buccia walking towards the castle 

Yes, this is me beside the castle: my skin colour has changed significantly

Sadly, however, yesterday was our last day to enjoy the beautiful beach. Unfortunately it was a bit windy so I didn’t go swimming, but it did entice all the windsurfers and parasailers out onto the sea.

A windsurfer coming into the beach to girare

Since it was our last day I decided to buy some earrings from one of the African men who constantly pester you with endless amounts of things. I bought two pairs: one turquoise stone, and one made of coral. In the final week of August, the men also start carrying around umbrellas for sale because we all know that the end of August means the beginning of autumn and then winter and lots of rain. So after discovering that is currently a maximum of 16 degrees in Hamburg and raining I also decided to purchase an umbrella. I managed to get a seriously cute cream one dotted with tiny black hearts, which has frills around the edges for only €6. Now I can’t wait for it to rain!

I should probably start to get ready now, though I am extremely sad to be leaving. I have had an incredible time here, and feel so lucky to have spent almost a month on the coast of Italy. It’s been like a dream, and I will most definitely miss the continual sun and endless blue sea and sky.

La mia famiglia italiana sulla spiaggia

Thank you so much Lina and Gino for taking me on holiday with you! You have given me memories of an incredible summer that will last a lifetime. I will miss you both when I go to Hamburg, but it is now time to say goodbye, and to say goodbye to Fossacesia. I hope this won’t be the last time that I am here!

Ciaooooooooooo!

Ortona: Una serata medievale

After hearing so much about the spectacular display of fireworks from inside a castle in Ortona, I spent the entire day in anticipation, desperate to get there and see with my own eyes what everyone had been telling me about. Ortona is fairly large town, two towns (or about 20 minutes driving) around the coast. Even though it is a port, rather than being at sea level, the entire town is perched on the top of a hill, looking down at the harbour. And for the record, it is amazing.

On Tuesday night, however, the town was even more incredible than usual. Not only because there was a red moon shining across the sea, but also because the whole of the old town had been redecorated as if we had gone back to medieval times.

We (and our many followers) parked at the bottom of the hill and walked the rest of the way up the stairs to the town above. At the top there is a footpath lined with giant palm trees and lights that winds around the port in both directions, along which are scattered many restaurants and bars. Since we had arrived three hours before the fireworks display was due to commence, we decided to walk in the direction of the castle and explore the surrounding area.

The view of the lungomare after climbing the stairs

The castle pre-fireworks

Walking to the castle definitely lead us in the right direction, because there were hundreds of people billowing out of the narrow streets. Because we had entered the festival backwards, we didn’t realise that there was actually a weeklong sagra of mammoth proportions in the medieval part of Ortona called Antichi Sapori it was identical to the idyllic Italian photos you see in tourism magazines of narrow, winding, cobbled streets with homes opening directly onto the roads, nonne (grandmothers) offering prosciutto sandwiches and boiled corn cobs to passers-by, and balconies perched up high with flowers streaming down. Unfortunately, neither I nor my camera were skilled enough to capture the beauty of the town, but we tried our best.

The heavily decorated and crowded streets
Sorry, it was really hard to capture in a photo

We wove our way through the streets that had been decorated with old fishing nets and pots hanging from the balconies above, big food stalls in various areas selling different dishes typical of Ortona and Abruzzo, and tables and chairs scattered everywhere possible for the hundreds of people waiting in 30m long queues to get their food and wine.

One of the food stands were women are making desserts typical of Ortona
To make these, the lady below cooks a sort of crêpe, splits it in two,
rolls each half into a cone, then this lady fills each warm soft cone
with a yellow custard-type crema.

A nonna cooking the circular crêpes to make the dessert 

When we finally got to the main piazza, we realised that this was a festival to celebrate the medieval history of the town. As part of the celebration, you were welcomed through a gateway lined with men playing booming drums into the streets where locals had dressed up in medieval clothing and were wandering the streets, playing old instruments and performing fortune-telling games.

Musicians line the entrance way to the medieval festivities

Me with two costumed girls sitting in the street through the entrance way

There was even a group of entertainers wandering around, some on stilts, others carrying a ginormous old trunk, and all heavily costumed including hats and bells. I eventually found these performers again in the midst of a group of people and went over to see what was going on. I soon discovered they were covering Esmerelda, one of the performers who was lying on the ground, in 100kg of snakes, one of which weighs 40kg in itself.

The main piazza, the entrance to Antichi Sapori is to the right by the tree

A snapshot of the end of the snake show in the piazza

When a whole lot of booming started, thinking perhaps we had mistaken the time that the fireworks were due to commence, so we hurried our way through the maze of streets in search of the castle. As it turns out, there was a pre-fireworks fireworks display over the harbour which was good enough to be the main thing. It lasted for about 15-20 minutes, after which we found our way to the nearest bar (along with 1000 other people) to get some granita and gelato.

As hoards of people started making their way towards the castle to get a good spot, we decided we should follow in their footsteps (even though it meant a half hour wait). I spent the whole time playing around with my camera and didn’t realise how many people had arrived in the piazza to see the fireworks until Gino told me to take a photo. Soon enough, a voice could be faintly heard through the microphone, and eventually the show began.

A view of everyone waiting for the fireworks to begin

A whole 40 minutes was filled with a synchronised display of pyrotechnics, coloured, themed, and well timed to suit the famous Italian music. The initial piece was a parade of red, white and green fireworks booming out of the castle to the Italian national anthem. This was followed by a series of famous Italian opera (now ballet) songs, of which the only one I can remember was Partirò by Andrea Bocelli, or Time to Say Goodbye as we know it.

A snapshot of the fireworks out of the castle

The reason I remember this song was because instead of having a normal fireworks display red smoke was billowing out of the castle, and every now and again some fireworks would explode and fire two lanterns (similar to a Chinese lantern) complete with flame into the sky, and we would watch them drift off into the distance until the next ones were fired. It was so incredible to watch. Every single song was stunning and every single song was different. Just when we thought it had finished, another song would start up again, and I’m so glad I videoed the final song because it was by far the best display (obviously). They even had smiley face fireworks (green eyes, red mouth). Hopefully when the internet works again I can put a couple of these videos on facebook.

Red smoke billowing out of the castle as lanterns were fired into the air

Another photo of the fireworks

Eventually, the show came to an end and we all wandered back to our cars feeling very moved. If anyone can put fireworks, it is definitely Italians. These were by far the best pyrotechnics I have ever seen, and I have seen the Sydney Harbour Bridge fireworks at New Year’s three times. Then again, it’s not often you get to see fireworks shooting out of a medieval castle. Perhaps it was the fairytale castle that did it for me. Whatever it was, I highly recommend a trip to Abruzzo for anyone considering travelling to Italy in the near future.