After a little while to rest at the hotel, we met Fabrizio for a tour of the city of Vasto, his home town.
As I mentioned earlier this was the coldest weather to hit Vasto at this time of year in thirty years, so it was a brisk walk. The shot above is near where Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery resided in a villa for a short while as the British and Commonwealth soldiers he commanded worked there way up the east coast of Italy while General Mark Clark guided US forces up the west coast but more on that later.
Vasto, being on the Adriatic sea is basically a beach town with most of its economy based on tourism. But given the weather and the fact that the Patron Saint celebration was only two days before, we pretty much had the centro to ourselves this evening.
The photo in the upper right of the gallery is known as the kissing arch and the legend goes that if one kisses their beloved under that arch, within a year the two will be married. The ladies of our group encouraged Fabrizio to bring his significant other to the arch to do so eliciting laughter from the group. As one can tell from the empty esplanade, it was not a day for sauntering in the sun but it beat many of my hiking days in the past where the wind and rain whipped at us all day as we hiked cross country.
The cathedral in Vasto is not that impressive from the outside but was very pretty on the inside.
Starting from the top left, photos 1,3 &4 are courtesy of mi amico Fabrizio.
The fascinating thing about this particular cathedral is “La Sacra Spina” or “The Sacred Spine”. When the cathedral was being built in the late 16th century, a wealthy family in the Vasto area put up most of the money for the cathedral. In return, Pope Pius IV presented the cathedral with a spine of the crown of thorns worn at the crucifixion of Christ. The photo bottom right above shows the altar which holds the spine.
Needless to say glass that is nearly 600 years old does not wear particularly well but one can see the outline of the spine if one looks closely.
We then began to stroll up the street to our dinner and walked by a street vendor roasting chestnuts. Now, believe it or not, I have never had a roasted chestnut! This was straight out of Dickens in a way the nuts were scooped with a scoop from the roaster to a cone of newspaper.
Pretty tasty roasted in a little olive oil and dusted with a touch of salt, I could get used to popping those tasty morsels as a walk around snack. (Photos courtesy Fabrizio Lucci Italia Sweet Italia).
We also passed a castle constructed in the fourteenth century which Canadian troops garrisoned during WWII.
We then moved along to the meal of the evening the Abruzzi delicacy “Arrosticini” which are skewers of small cubes of mutton, interlaced with small cubes of sheep fat, roasted, usually over a charcoal fire, and seasoned just with Olive oil, salt and pepper. Now I like lamb but I’m not necessarily a big mutton fan but these were quite tasty even if they were roasted over a gas brazier. I think charcoal would make them taste even better.
Photos courtesy Fabrizio
Finally after all the walking, talking, and eating we ambled back to the hotel along the beautiful pedestrian boulevard that we had been using all week when Fabrizio took this lovely picture of the boulevard and the full moon.
Tomorrow we visit a Trabocchi fishing hut. Ciao for now.
Lou Hikes? 