Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Italian Road Trip!

A week after getting back from cold, dark northern Europe, I embarked on another big trip, this time to warm, sunny southern Italy! My housemate Alessia invited me and my other American housemate Christina to come with her and her boyfriend Emanuele to Praia a Mare, Calabria the little town in where her mother's family is from. We first took a train to Ancona to meet up with Emanuele, and then we went the rest of the way in Emanuele's car, making a one-night stop along the way in Alessia's current home city of Pescara. We traveled down the eastern Adriatic Coast - through 8 different regions of central and southern Italy - all the way down to Calabria at the "toe of the boot."

This was the road trip: beautiful land and seascapes everywhere we went, plenty of time to relax and play on the beach, and some of the most delicious homemade food I have ever eaten in my life, thanks to Alessia's grandparents. The grandparents told me when I arrived that they tried to make all of the food at home from scratch. This included the bread, the pasta, the flour, the wine, the dried figs, candied fruit, jam made from the wine grapes, and a liqueur made from I don't remember what. It was perhaps a life-changing experience, and I am hereafter resolved to grow a vineyard and make my own wine when I am older...

Photo tour!

Pedestrian bridge and boardwalk in Pescara, Abruzzo

Wind turbines and poppies in Puglia

Praia a Mare, Calabria

Alessia's family's home

Rocky beach

Relaxing on the beach

Natural arch and inlet

Mural in nearby town of Diamante

Hill-top Christ statue of Maratea

Sunset from atop hill