The apartment renovation work is behind us and the hot weather is gone. Time to do some more fun stuff. Why else move to Italy… certainly not do be consumed by projects!

So what am I cooking up for fun? The most obvious are the town festivals. Entertainment is usually free and they are more predominate in summer but are year-round. This past summer, our comune’s calendar was chock-full of music, food, historic and sports events and they continue on into the fall. The venues are usually in our town’s piazza or a street that has been closed for foot traffic only. Food vendors are prominent, and the offerings are so wonderfully delicious. In conjunction with the street food, the local ProLoco group may cook up an amazing array of the area’s typical dishes. Check out below what was cooking here in Rocca! ….. traditional lamb fest, and this tradition has been going on for 43 years here… So we check out the calendar here as well in neighboring towns to make our decisions. 😉

Each year, a day prior to the Lamb Fest, a local hiking guru offers an excursion, usually up the mountain to historic or ecological sites. This year, we were able to join this event with about 30 others. A quick breakfast of the delicious local pastry, Le Scrippelle, was offered. We headed up into the countryside to a local grotto, just underneath the wind farm and Roccavecchia. The weather was iffy, with clouds and fog and the threat of rain, but just as we began the hike, the wind pushed all that away for a glorious day. It was a diverse group of various ages. I think the most memorable part was when some of the group began singing local folk songs as we hiked along. We finished up the day with a delicious group meal and more fantastic folk music at Le Due Querce Ristorante here in Rocca .

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A while back in one of my postings, I had mentioned the difficulty I was having finding a place to take Romeo for off-leash walks. In the US, if I went hiking with the dogs, the only true danger would be coming up on a mother bear and her cubs. But if you make enough noise as you move along in the woods, having a bell on your dog and backpack, you normally will not have any issues. Here in Italy, I’m not as comfortable. There is the concern of meeting a herd of wild boar, with some angry males and their maiming tusks. Just not something I’m keen on Romeo running up against. The perfect and obvious solution was to take Romeo up the mountain where we had recently hiked with the group. There I can see for miles to assess if all is safe. Romeo is recovering from a lazy year now that he is back on the trail, and we’re all getting some extra miles in and loving it.

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So apart from hiking and road trekking, we love to bike. Well, not as much as in our younger years. Many moons ago, we both had road bikes. I can remember putting in some serious mileage back in college. Those days are long gone. Now, we have mountain bikes, but truth be told, we are not into biking the killer climbs at our age. So we dusted off our bikes and headed to the sea. There are some fantastic bike trails throughout Italy and the one along the Adriatic coast is called Il Corridoio Verde Adriatico. We stick with stretches that are relatively flat as we get back into shape.

Last year, when we lived near Silvi Marina, we could bike to the town of Pineto and up towards Roseto d. Abruzzi. Some stretches still go along a busy route 16, but slowly almost the entire coastline will have a beautiful dedicated bike path. Last week, our jaunt was a short one from San Salvo Marina up to Vasto Marina and back. Only about 8 miles, but we could tell that we were seriously out of shape in the comfort department! So we’ll be back each week as we enjoy this great fall weather.

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We have some more fun events planned as well as just sightseeing around the many hilltop villages. I promise to share pictures and also recap John’s application process for his Italian passport.

Normally I leave you with a few stunning panoramas, but this time, instead I’m all about food . We’ve tried a couple new places in the area but always come back to our local favorite, Trattoria La Fonte. Angelica at La Fonte has been creating some awesome salads for me and friends around are now enjoying them as well. Yes, I love to eat… being Italian… but also like to stay in shape. One new restaurant for us is close to the beach in the town of Cupello. Hope you enjoy! And thanks for following…

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