As I mentioned previously the weather changed overnight as a front moved through from sunny and warm to sunny and brisk with gusty winds. After the visit to the olive oil mill we then went for lunch to an Agriturismo with an artistic flair. It stands on top of a mountain with a wonderful view of the Adriatic. The video below will give you a feel for the wind.
The view was beautiful but brisk and we were supposed to go around the property collecting flowers to paint with for our art activity (while this was fun I have to be honest, this started to feel a bit like adult day care LOL) but, it was determined that it was too brisk for most, so activities moved inside though we were able to wander around the property on our own.
Hectore and Barbara, the owners of the property, are in the process of creating rooms to let in the form of whimsical structures such as the treehouse above and the Middle Earth, Hobbit looking structure below.
As one would expect in an art oriented property, there were a variety of artistic type items on the property, particularly with Hectore being a sculpture by trade.
After wandering around a bit we were asked to pick a selection of flowers from a basket and, using the flowers like paint, to make a painting of whatever we liked. I chose to do a landscape of the view from the picture window where we were sitting for the project and lunch.
Too bad there wasn’t any blue in the basket or my feeble attempt at impressionistic art would have been better. But, it was very similar to working with watercolors, which I tried my hand at many years ago in my youth and was ok.
After our art exercise we had a vegetarian lunch. Now I realize that there are varying degrees of vegetarianism so this was vegetarian, dairy/eggs acceptable, with the unique item being a pesto sauce made with arugula rather than basil served with grated pecorino romano. Pretty tasty as was the scrambled eggs with peppers. (Photos courtesy Fabrizio Italia Sweet Italia)
After a shot of the ever present limoncello after lunch (I now have the recipe and am in the process of making some myself…we’ll see 🙂 ) We went from the mountains to the sea to “dip our toes” in the Adriatic.
Coldest weather for this time of year in thirty years is what Fabrizio’s mother said. So, no toe dipping needless to say. Part 3 a tour of Vasto and the regional specialty of ABruzzo will wrap up this busy day. Ciao per ora!
Lou Hikes? 