It's an undeniable fact that if you hang around a place long enough, it starts to feel like home. In Pescara, the living was pretty easy -unlimited water at the dock, luxurious showers just steps away, a vast selection of supermarkets offering all the gourmet delights that Italy has to offer, and a long beachfront boulevard that was the perfect place to run off the excess pasta and pizza we were consuming on a regular basis at our favourite restaurant, La Vela d'Oro. In short, it was easy to linger. Lots of Italians were enjoying the nearby beach scene too, although apparently the crowds are lighter than usual this August due to the recession.



One especially nice thing about our time in Pescara was being introduced to Abruzzo by fellow Slocum 43 owners Tom McCoy and Ilse Merryman. We'd first "met" Tom and Ilse by email, when Tom found our blog and sent us a message. Although their boat Serenata is currently berthed near their permanent home in Hampton Virginia, Tom and Ilse plan to eventually sail her across the Atlantic, closer to their second home in Introdacqua, Abruzzo. Our stay in Pescara gave us the perfect opportunity to meet them in person. Within two days of our arrival in Pescara, Tom had dropped by for a visit and Rick quickly discovered that they had lots in common (including, obviously, similar taste in boats). When we returned to Pescara in August, a visit to Abruzzo was high on our wish list of things to do.

If you like Italian wines, Abruzzo is the same place you may have seen mentioned on the labels of "Montepulciano d'Abruzzo", a fruity red wine produced from the Montepulciano grape (but not to be confused with the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano wine of Tuscany, which in spite of the name is not made from the Montepulciano grape). Aside from good wine, Abruzzo offers spectacular mountain scenery, delightful un-touristy medieval towns and relatively cool temperatures in summer.

Driving into the mountains that loom over Pescara, we met Tom and Ilse in the parking lot of an Agip station and followed them into the village of Introdacqua, where we were surprised to see a sign announcing that Introdacqua is "twinned" with the city of Hamilton Ontario. After parking our rental car near Tom and Ilse's home behind the medieval tower in the old town, we hopped into their car and were whisked off to Sulmona for lunch. Sulmona, the birthplace of the poet Ovid, is a charming medieval town tucked into the Apennine mountains. In addition to the requisite statue of Ovid, it has a 13th century aqueduct, some impressive palazzo's and a booming "confetti" business. Sulmona's confetti is not the little bits of coloured paper that we used to throw at brides and grooms back in the days when churches still tolerated that kind of mess. The Sulmona confetti is a sugared almond that is handed out to guests at Italian weddings. Some of the confetti was fashioned into artificial flowers that were so colourful and realistic that I could hardly believe they had been made from almonds and sugar!



After a delicious leisurely lunch, we headed off to Pettorano, another delightful mountain village, where the pace of life is slow enough that the residents chill their watermelons in the local fountains.



Pettorano has its own medieval tower, so naturally we had to check out the view from the top. Thankfully, the steps were pretty solid. By this point, we were so charmed by Abruzzo that it was no surprise to see Rick checking out the local real estate postings. Maybe there's a fixer-upper here somewhere?




We wrapped up the afternoon on the terrace of Tom and Ilse's lovely house in Introdacqua, then walked down the hill to meet their friends Bob and Sally for dinner at a local restaurant. Like most villages in Italy, Introdacqua was having a summer ("estate") festival, and a full marching band was parading through the town just as we arrived. Unfortunately, we'd arrived a day too early to see the "Burning of the Witch", an Intrdodacqua custom that occurs each summer. (Tom and Ilse went to see it the next night, and they told us about it when they drove down to Pescara for a visit a few days later. It's a paper witch of course, but some brave soul actually dances inside the witch even while the paper is burning. Apparently they do this in Hamilton too?) At dinner, both of us tried the highly recommended "stinco" (a braised pork shank) which was delicious in spite of the unusual-sounding name! It was a very merry evening, but unfortunately we eventually had to drag ourselves away from the table and face up to the long dark drive back to Pescara. As we made our way down the mountain, we were wishing that we'd taken Tom and Isle up on their offer to spend the night in their spare room! It had been a great day with very gracious hosts.



Our trip to Venice delayed our departure from Pescara a bit longer, and then, just as we really had decided to leave, our bike was stolen! This was clearly our own fault as we'd grown a bit complacent and had just been leaving it at our bow without a lock when we were onboard during the day (although we had faithfully locked it at night). On the day that it disappeared, there had been a motorboat accident off the beach and there were more people than usual around the marina. So, one minute our bike was at the bow and the next minute, it had vanished. But once again, Stella and Alberto at L'Altro Porto came to our rescue, finding us a second hand bike at a very reasonable price and even driving Rick to pick it up. We really can't thank them enough for all their kindness!

Finally, we ran out of excuses to stay. We checked out of the marina on the Tuesday following our return from Venice, although our hopes for a 7.30 p.m. departure faded as we waited for various representatives of Italy's officialdom to arrive and check us out. The immigration police arrived at around 9 o'clock and, declining our invitation to climb Aisling's anchor, they stamped our passports by flashlight on the roof of their car in a keystone cops routine that might have been funny if we hadn't had "miles to go before we slept". Then we waited for the Guardia Finanza and Customs agents to arrive. Two and a half hours later, when they still hadn't appeared, the marina told us we were free to leave.

As it turned out, the timing of our departure was pretty good. We headed across the Adriatic under an almost-full, almost-blue moon and arrived at the town dock in Vis, Croatia at around 3.30 the next afternoon. Once again, we had formalities to complete, but this time we were able to sit in a little café having our traditional post-passage celebratory beer (called "pivo" here) as we waited for the police to arrive.

We've fallen pretty far behind on our blog postings (and haven't even written about Rome!) but here's a quick update. After spending a few days relaxing on the beautiful island of Vis, we made a quick stop in the tiny cove of Lovisce, then returned to one of our favourite anchorages at the old monastery on Badija, near Korcula. This time, we were determined to stay until Thursday night, to see a performance of the "Mariske" sword dance that is performed only in Korcula. (It did not disappoint.) We've just arrived in Mljet national park, next stop, Dubrovnik!

P.S. Barbara...you'll be in Italy next April? Let's talk!