Gentle pace of life

We have spent a few days at Ascoli Piceno just pottering around and enjoying the area and the old town.

We walked down to the river on Thursday because we had decided we needed to get a feel of open spaces and fresh air again. For the size of this small town, there are a lot of bridges over it - a mixture of really, really old and just old. Its a beautiful day and we just walk and refresh the senses.

Friday was a day set aside for touring around the East Coast, and so we drove the 20km to the coast and then headed South from there into new territory. We pack our togs....The Italian beaches aren't anything like ours. For a start its hard to actually get onto the beach because the main truck railway line follows the coast and there are limited ways to cross it, and when you do, the beach front is 'owned' by the hotel behind it and you cant go there unless you pay. And if you do pay, you sit in amongst rows and rows of numbered deckchairs. Its probably the only way you can get a lot of people using a small amount of beach?? I am not sure, but anyway we dont like it much - having been used to driving down to Waitarere Beach in the car as far as you want and then getting out and putting down your towel.

The highlight of this day was on our way home when we decided to detour into a small hilltop settlement called Civitella del Tronto. Had an icecream and wandered around the village. Nice and quiet (its siesta time) and also very old. Just as we were leaving we spotted an ancient tower with a sign saying that it was the entrance to the 'moving stairs'. Once inside we realise that its the entrance to the old fort on the top of the hill where some of the Napoleonic wars were fought in 1806. We went up the 2 escalators and arrived at the fort. Spent a couple of hours there and the views from the top were amazing. Of course thats why they positioned the fort there in the first place! The fortress is one of the most impressive works of military engineering in Europe. It measures 500metres long and has an area of 25,000 square metres. It was in the process of being restored after all the wars plus the pillaging of the stone by locals to build houses!

The fort even had the remains of the old bread ovens which have been restored. They look very suspiciously like pizza ovens :) Each one was about 3m in diameter inside so they would have made a lot of bread at one time.

Shallow steps to enable horses and cannons to be moved around easily. Still in pretty good condition. The parade grounds were paved like this too and they were massive.

Saturday at our village its market day. Its a huge big deal and every piazza has tents and vans and there are people selling everything from clothes to antiques, enormous pottery pots and furniture. Huge pieces of furniture only suitable for huge houses. What we loved the most was the smaller piazza that had people selling fruits and vegetables from their own gardens. For instance, an elderly man sitting on a wee wooden stool was selling some leeks, some artichokes and a basket of fresh eggs. It seems as if everyone who has a few centimetres of ground here, has some sort of vegetable or herb planted in it. No-one mows lawns - its all edible production. I think we are going to come home and rotary hoe up all the lawns :)

Leave Ascoli Piceno on Sunday morning and head for the West Coast. Its going to be a 4 hour drive at least. Its a great drive and a nice sunny but not too hot day. We drive over (or should I say though) the mountain range called 'Gran Sasso d'Italia'. Lots and lots of tunnels of around 500 metres to 2 kms long and then one enormous one that was 10km long. Also lots of very long bridges going straight down the centre of a deep valley. Its a fantastic and very scenic drive. Amazing Italian engineering!

And now we are at a small beach settlement of Sperlonga. We are staying in a smaller, family run,older hotel called La Sirenella. We have been here before - 7 years ago - and its lovely. Its not too touristy and crowded at this time of the year. And yes we have the rows of deckchairs in front of the hotel - but we have declined the option (and cost of 15 euros per day) to use them. There are more opportunities to access the beach around here and we will just use them instead.

So 5 days here and lots more exploring to do. Last visit was very short as it was the beginning of our holiday and we had a lot of travelling to do. This time its the end.

Then we will spend the last 4 nights in Naples and plan to dance tango every opportunity we can find. Thomas and Simone have told us about the great dancing there and we are looking forward to it.

Apologies for the lack of blogs in the last while but we had internet issues in Ascoli Piceno and couldnt even find any wifi to use the smart phone. All is resolved now.

Nasty earthquake in the North of Italy. It hasn't affected us down here but is still horrible for those effected.