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.
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| Afro and I found a cute wooden Pinocchio in the street |
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| 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.
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| The view from Vasto, the main lights in the centre are the marina |
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| 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.
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| The crazy candy caravan |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Choco Kebab stand |
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| 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 |
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| Chocolate sauce is added (above) Piles of chocolate shavings placed on top |
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| 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 |
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| 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.
P.S. Hamburg is really, really cool.
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