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!