Full plates, mini-breaks and earthquakes

This blog definitely comes with a warning - get a cuppatea or glass of wine before you start, lest you die of thirst before the end. 

The last couple of weeks in Italy have been about food, food and more food. Recently we visited a slightly insalubrious-looking restaurant as is sometimes de rigueur in these parts, but one that was recommended by our new friends Steve and Marion so we gave it the benefit of the doubt. We ordered the antipasti for starter and three pasta dishes thinking this was a reasonable amount of food. What appeared at our table was epic in proportions - the 'antipasti' was about 10 dishes on its own and then the pasta began to show up which is when we realised our mistake. Three dishes turned out to in fact be five (one being a trio) and each one large enough to feed a team of hungry construction workers:
 

Pastageddon

Nevertheless the food was very nice and we got to take the rest home to eat for dinner. Steve and Marion were very helpful people to know and are currently renovating an old farm house, which is surrounded by their own olive grove. They intend to run holidays for foodies once it's finished, which we are sure will be quite brilliant and we've already done one of their cooking experiences (more on this lower down). We went to visit the farm, which was beautiful and Charlie got to sit on another tractor and beep the horn.   

Man, he did not want to leave that tractor

Ed's Mum Jennie came to stay with us for a couple of days and we repeated our trip up to Gran Sasso. This time the weather was completely different - all the snow had melted and it was warm and sunny. We were able to drive up to the observatory at Campo Imperatore and we decided to climb up to a mountain refuge about 400 metres up on the hill, a somewhat challenging escapade given we had a three year old with us. Katie was absolutely determined to get Charlie to the top and cajoled, bribed, threatened and finally carried him up there. The views at the top were rather majestic and there was even a bit of snow. We blamed our extraordinary levels of breathlessness on the altitude, rather than our increased mass and decreased fitness levels.

Mum climbing the path with a view down to Mussolini's place of imprisonment during WWII

Quite a view from the top, plus a lovely example of a glaciated U-shaped valley in the background for all you Geology nerds

A rare photo of Ed smiling and Katie pouting (it's usually the other way round)

After hoofing it up the hill we had BBQ (of course) and then went to San Stefano where a gelato place was open. They didn't have any gelato, but they did have semi-freddo cakes which were a) extortionate and b) strange tasting and mostly consisting of squirty cream. Naturally we polished them off as it would be rude not to. 

Charlie and Jennie wondering how much more strange crockery can be placed on the table

After Jennie left, we had a quiet day waiting for Cate, Paul e famiglia to arrive. Annoyingly the dishwasher decided to break down so Steve and his mates from up the hill came to have a look at it, which was very kind of them. They attempted to dislodge any obstruction by blowing into one end of the waste pipe, which precipitated a certain amount of juvenile guffawing which Katie chose not to participate in. Sadly, all this activity did not result in a mended dishwasher. Once they had left, Ed continued to try to 'fix it' which somehow (Katie still isn't sure how) resulted in him ingesting a large gulp of fetid water from the bowels of the machine. Thus followed ten minutes of Ed retching (unsuccessfully) in an attempt to make himself sick and Katie attempting (unsuccessfully) to conceal her amusement. 

 Cate, Paul, Dylan, Arwen and Quinn arrived late the following evening and of course we got far too excited and stayed up late into the night talking. Unfortunately, we three had decided to go to Rome for two days the next morning. So after just 2.5 hour's sleep (in Katie's case) we joyously leaped in the car and drove three hours down the road to the eternal city. Google maps did its usual trick of sending us down farm tracks on the way to the autostrada (we actually had to stop for a brace of ducks with their ducklings to cross the road!) but eventually we hit the unbelievable chaos that is Rome's traffic, which was all expertly navigated by Ed. We had booked an airbnb with parking, which turned out to be impossible to get into and Ed ended up with our car stuck touching another car. He finally got into the space by engaging in an Austin Powers-esque 53 point-turn-reverse-parallel-park while Katie looked on it awe and dread.

  

Rome was totally manic. I think it's fair to say we picked the wrong day to go. There was a general strike of all public transport, meaning the roads were solid. This didn't stop us from going on an open-top bus tour and immediately regretting it as we sat in the endless traffic fumes. It was also both half term and 'Misericordia' - apparently a 'Jubilee of Mercy', involving a papal audience and some canonising. Once all that had finished the many thousands of pilgrims flocked from St. Peter's Square into the city, each group larger and more infirm than the last. In spite of these many obstacles we saw all the main sites - the Colosseum (awesome - and Ed scared Charlie with lots of stories of lions coming through trapdoors)

"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?"

We saw all the main sights - The Forum, The Trevi Fountain etc. (although we actually thought the Trevi Foundation was an entirely different one and we were slightly underwhelmed by how tiny it was and the total lack of throngs of tourists. Then when we found The Real Trevi Fountain, we realised our mistake. There were so many tourists they were pretty much falling in the water). 

Particularly impressive was The Pantheon, built by the Emperor Hadrian, reportedly one of the better emperors. Mind-blowingly, it was built over 2,000 years ago and is the largest un-reinforced concrete dome in the world. There is a hole in the middle of the dome which strengthens it, and the rain falls through into the building (which is now a church, obviously, because every second building in Rome is a church) draining away as the floor is also slightly convex. Out of anything else we saw in Rome, it revealed the staggering architectural and technical prowess of people so long ago. 

 Our night in Rome was the anniversary of our meeting ten years ago, at Mary and Tom's party in Sussex Gardens in London. We celebrated with a bottle of ten-year old Nicholas Feuillatte champagne (it turned out to be a very good vintage) which we picked up back in September when we drove through Epernay. Then Ed went foraging while Katie put Charlie to bed and found a burrata. For the uninitiated, this is the holy grail of mozzarella, which has had cream added to it, creating a delicious molten centre. It is one of our favourite things in the whole world and an apt celebration of what has been on the whole a pretty good decade!

The next day we had lunch at Gusto - thankfully well off the tourist and pilgrim trail and recommended to us by two people independently, so we knew it would be good. It was an epic-style brunch buffet, but rather than the buffets we recall from our bike trip across the US (where often the only edible item would be a luminous lemon-meringue pie), this was top notch. Tables groaned under the weight of vegetables, pastas, stews, pizza, omelettes, ham, chicken and anything other Italian treats you can imagine. 

2nd plate of 6 in Ed's case

Then a whole table for desserts - tiramisu, brownies, tortes and panna cotta. In short, we gorged ourselves like Roman emperors, but sadly after about seven platefuls we had to stop as the restaurant lacked a vomitorium and peacock feathers are surprisingly hard to find in modern day Rome. We stayed in the city until late that evening and then drove back to Abruzzo, via a minor suburban detour due to a disagreement between Ed and google maps. 

"I will not pose for this foto"

The next day it was up bright and early for possibly the best day of an entire trip so far - learning to cook pasta with Filomena, an actual Italian Nonna (granny) - organised by Steve as a tester for his foodie adventures. We were lucky enough to be invited to their farmhouse and we learned to cook a number of dishes that we then devoured with an extended group of Brits and Italians.

Raviolissimo

The lunch was one of those epic affairs that we thought were apocryphal - 20 people seated round a table outside under a pergola, surrounded by an olive grove.

We ate:

Like the Ferrari showroom but for olive oil (photo Steve Hughes)

1. Bread and olive oil (in fact, an olive oil tasting of five local olive oils including the 'Ferrari of oils' which goes for around €25 a litre). Also with local cured meats.
2. The name of this dish escapes us. It was a mix of chickpea and semolina cooked in water and thickened to a custard-like consistency, topped with fried lardo (bacon) and dried sweet peppers (which you see hanging outside most houses). Charlie ate about 12 of the peppers.
3. Fagioli e zucca: a delicious dish of pumpkin cooked to a pulp with borlotti beans
4. Pasta! The ravioli we made accompanied by Filomena's legendary tomato passata. We filled the ravioli with ricotta (both sheep's and cow's milk, into which parmesan and another hard cheese was added, along with egg yolks)
5. Carne (meat). The regional specialty arrosticini was made from one of their own lambs, recently killed, alongside chicken cooked in the pizza oven. It was wrapped with olive oil and roasted in the hot oven which had made it incredibly succulent, almost translucent with the skin pretty much deep fried. In fact, the closest thing we can think of is a confit.
6. Dessert:

• fresh melon as a palate clenser,
• homemade panna cotta with strawberry coulis
• Gelato from Regina's (the best ice cream place in town) both frutta (frozen yoghurt with strawberry) and crema (a selection of chocolate, caramello etc.)

Washed down with local red wine, of course. And then the local digestive. And then espresso. 

Sun dappled late afternoon delight (photo Cate Hamilton)

Then after all that food everyone lounged around cuddling a lamb who had recently been born on the farm (and tried not to think about its compatriot who we had just consumed).

Katie's work experience on a sheep farm 20 years ago comes in handy

This experience is the tip of the iceberg of what has been a true gastronomic experience over the last month. We've explored the local market in Penne and bought among other things some salt cod, which we had to soak for four days before making into delicious fishcakes. Ed has developed the ultimate veggie lasagne made with a ragu of lentils, vegetables and oyster mushrooms plus freshly made pasta and topped with sheep's milk ricotta which may be one of our favourite dishes so far. We've also discovered the pasta shop in Penne, which can produce fresh tagliatelle, ravioli and tortellini in the blink of an eye with their enormous pasta making machines. And that's not forgetting the mountain BBQ at the top of Gran Sasso, which we have visited three times in as many weeks.

It goes without saying that if you see us over Christmas in the UK, please be jolly nice and don't mention how much weight we've put on. Just say something tactful like 'you're looking very well'. 

As has been well reported in the news, Italy has been hit by a couple of big earthquakes in the last few days. It was deeply alarming to see the house physically shake before our very eyes, but better it did that, rather than what has happened to many of the old towns and villages. But thank goodness no one has lost their lives on this occasion. 

It was with a heavy heart we packed up the car once more and took an overnight ferry to Greece on Thursday. We're sure this will bring it's own delights (we've already been invited to a Halloween party by our incredibly friendly airbnb hosts) as well as its challenges.

We truly loved Italy and are very grateful to Jean and Martin, who have let us stay in their house, as well as their daughter Cate and her lovely family who were such excellent company for our last week here. That's not forgetting Steve and Marion up the road who have helped us so much here and been great at recommending lovely local stuff to do. We hope to be back in Abruzzo at some point, and we chucked some coins in the Trevi Fountain which means at the very least we should return to Rome one day...

Arrivederci Italy (photo Cate Hamilton)