Just Some Appetizers

Sat 10/12/2013
Time to move to Villa Danilo in the Chieti Province of Abruzzo. Leonardo had us follow him to the town of Sulmona where he had someone come get our car to deliver it at our last hotel site. We went to the town of Sulmona for the Sat. market, one of the largest in the area. I had a goal...I needed a cheap pair of serviceable shoes for a muddy walk scheduled for Sun. We walked through the market admiring the gorgeous produce and checked out all the "stuff" being sold (tools, kitchenware, clothing, purses, all kinds of food, etc, etc.) and I was able to score a pair of 6 Euro high top sneakers. Sulmona is a pretty town with a big chunk of a Roman aqueduct running by the market.

Roman aqueduct

It's the birthplace of Ovid

Ovid

and it's famous for "confetti", candies with a hard shell that are used at weddings, baptisms and parties of all kinds. The  candies are made into flowers or left as singles in every color and flavor. The most typical is almond with a candy shell but the variety is huge. I picked up some "confetti" to bring home, we checked out the cathedral then Leonardo took us to lunch where we were going to just have "some antipasti and soup." HAH! The antipasti was an endless parade of delicious appetizers that included meats, cheeses, farro salad, breads, involtini, vegetables cooked kind of tempura style and many more than I can remember. The "soup" was pasta fagioli, a VERY hearty bean and pasta soup. Then Leonardo insisted we have a dessert...."it's small, we can share it." HAH! It was multiple desserts all on one plate. They rolled us out, stopping to talk to the chef on the way out.
Then into the van for the 1 hour drive to Villa Danilo in the Chieti area of Abruzzo, an area of forests and rolling hills with a strong agricultural tradition.  The hotel is a 4 star hotel in the middle of nowhere. We had a couple hours of break before gathering for a beer and then pizza. (After all, it had been at least 3 hours since we ate.) The hotel has a state of the art but traditional woodburning pizza oven so Giorgio, the chef, showed us how to make pizza. Evil Leonardo said we HAD to try their semifreddo for dessert even though none of us could come close to finishing our pizza so he ordered a mint and chocolate semifreddo. Delicious but one bite was more then enough by that time. An early night because Sun was to be an early morning wake up.