Trip to the Adriatic Sea!

Alright (D’accordo), I guess it’s my turn to add some details of our incredible trip to the blog.  I speak for Tom, Donna and myself when I tell you that it was extremely hard to say goodbye to Ilenia and her family when it was time to move on north to Porto San Giorgio. My heart sank when I realized it was the last time I would hear her say, ‘I will pick you up at our usual time for un cappuccino.’ (Ironically, I always ordered the cappuccino Italiano and she always ordered the cappuccino Americano!).

Shouts go out to my cousin Carmen Galesi and his son Gale for connecting us to such beautiful and welcoming cousins!

So we put away the Kleenex and made our way north to meet some cousins from my dad’s side of the family who were originally from Torre Del Greco, but moved up to Sant'Elpidio in the region of Marche. This would be the furthest north in Italy we would travel. It was about an hour up the coast from Pescara.

Upon arriving in Sant’Elpidio we met my cousin Michela Spinalbese and her daughter Paola. It was an emotional meeting. Her son Lorenzo and his girlfriend came to meet us not too long after this. The smells coming out of her kitchen were out of this world. And so began about two weeks straight of being stuffed to the gills with the most incredible food you can imagine!

On the menu for Pranzo at 2:00? Spaghetti Bolognese – scrumptious! It was accompanied by delicious white wine. What a great lunch, right? Nope. That was the warm up. She then brought out the main dish; Chicken cacciatore Neapolitan style! Delicious!

This was capped off with gelato topped with fresh cut peaches and espresso that even Tom liked! This was only the beginning of a joyous day with my cousins in Sant'Elpidio. We'll pick it up from here in our next installment!