So, before we get into what ended up being a very fun, and informative week, I want to give a shout out to Fabrizio Lucci, our guide and owner of “Italia Sweet Italia” tours http://www.italiasweetitalia.com Fabrizio has been kind enough to share some of his photos of the tour with me and I plan to give proper attribution but suffice it to say, if the picture is really good, I probably didn’t take it lol.
After settling in the group walked down through a lovely city park to our first dinner together. Vasto, in the Chieti province of Abruzzo, is on the Adriatic sea. Thus, Seafood is an important part of the Abtuzzi cuisine. Now I have to be honest, seafood is not my long suit as I am a Midwest beef and pork kind of guy, but seafood well done (as in prepared well, not cooked well) I have always found to be a pleasant experience.
From dinner we wandered down to the “Patron Saint celebration”. The patron saint for Vasto is St. Michael the Archangel. I had heard of patron saint celebrations before and had seen representations in movies but I really had no understanding of the fact that, in Italy, this is a thing. Bank holiday, schools out, big deal. I had my first inkling as we got to the main celebration area.
Holy Smokes the light displays were truly impressive.
Food vendors, toy vendors, carnival rides, live concerts with popular local bands (not oompah bands but rock, folk and jazz) the marching band comes tomorrow. Well it was fascinating and I needed to walk off dinner so about four of us kind of hung out and checked things out. As we walked a wide pedestrian boulevard back to the hotel we came to the church of St. Michael the Archangel a half block from our hotel but facing toward the sea so from the hotel we saw the back of the church. Below was what was at the front:
If you can’t tell, the lights are supposed to represent the wings of St. Michael. That’s all for know. Next posts starts a week of farm to table dining with activities and everything LOL. Ciao for now!
Lou Hikes? 
love your posts Lou!
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