Hambley's Hiatus: Pescara

A whole day of driving saw us head east and south along the ocean to Pescara. Rhiannon's Nonna's cousin(?), Inessa and her husband Rocco welcomed us at her door and before to long Lorenzo and his mum were around. Lorenzo is Inessa grandson and recently visited the family in Melbourne to complete some English lessons. He spoke very good English but made funny mistakes that we loved. We returned the favour with some terrible Italian over the next couple days. He took us on a day trip into the surrounding mountain areas (National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise) where he and his dogs hunt down truffles. At between 8 and 13 thousand Euro's a kilo its not a bad business to get into. During this day trip he took us to his friends restaurant. We were the only ones in there for lunch. A lunch neither of us will forget for a while. Out came two massive antipasti platters for the three of us with bread naturally. Lorenzo and Rhi ordered truffle ravioli's and I went for my new favourite, the wild boar pasta. It came to dessert and unfortunately Rhi and I waved the white flag. I say unfortunately because Lorenzo ordered and devoured one of the best Panna Cotta's I've ever seen. Again I found myself in deep need of an espresso before being able to navigate a car safely. The food won the battle though as a couple hours later I had to hand over the wheel to Lorenzo to avoid nodding off at it. I did not nod off. Lorenzo being the true Italian sat for the next 30 minutes on an average speed of 140km/ph weaving through endless trucks in our precious V.W. That night we got the full Nonna dinner experience and I managed to flog Rhi and her at Italian cards before the day was out (little note from Rhi: of course it was the first and only time he has won, hence why you're reading about it!). The next day Lorenzo showed us where Rhi's grandparents and Dad use to live and then took us to his friends clothes label warehouse. This is the way to shop! I walked around picking what I liked off the Small to Large ordered shelves and then paid half the price. Cha Ching! We returned to Nonna Inessa's for a final fabulous meal before slurping another coffee and then slumping into the V.W for the drive back to where it all started, Rome.