Termoli

“Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach, I feel it in the air; the summer’s out of reach…”

-Don Henley, The Boys of Summer

*Still having connection issues, so unable to upload pictures for this post - hopefully will get this resolved in a few days*

Although our furnished apartment does have the very basics (dish ware, cooking utensils, pots and pans, sheets and blankets, and those kind of things), we did need to pick up some other household items.  As our town is quite small and doesn’t have a US-style big box store, or even a shopping center or strip mall, we decided to go to the closest home goods store we could find - Happy Casa in Termoli.  Termoli is huge compared to our town.  It’s a resort town with a centro storico (historic center), and a very nice beach in addition to its port.  It’s a very scenic 40 minute drive from our town.

We easily found the Happy Casa; it’s kind of like a big box store; the hubs said it made him think of a less-organized K-Mart.  Big Lots is what came to my mind; perhaps it’s a combination of the two.  They had a little bit of everything:  personal hygiene products, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, cookware, bathroom furnishings, toys, and even Christmas items.  So we picked up some towels, hair conditioner, laundry detergent (note to self:  figure out how to use the Italian washing machine soon!), and other odds and ends - and even picked up a small, cheap microonde (microwave).  I forgot to check whether my US quarter would fit in the euro slot in the shopping cart, as they do at Aldi’s in Germany.

After our little shopping spree, it was about 1:00 PM; here in this region of Italy at least, that’s lunch time (il pranzo). We checked Google maps for lunch restaurants and decided on a place called Ricky’s; the GPS in our car misled us a bit (she sometimes struggles with roundabouts), but we eventually found it.  It had quite a lot of seating, but was dead empty except for what appeared to be a small group of men - possibly employees - eating lunch.  We only had primo piatto (first course), which were pasta dishes:  pasta ragù for me, and a pasta, beans, and shrimp dish  for him (I don’t remember the Italian name for this dish).  My pasta consisted of long, thin, flat noodles - maybe tagliatelle - in tomato sauce with shreds of very tender beef - delicious!  His pasta was short, rolled tubes.  And, while we were waiting for our lunches, the server brought us a plate of screppelle, which we’d never had before - sticks of lightly fried dough that are very soft, almost donut-like, on the inside - they look very simple but taste absolutely amazing.  

Even though the servings were not very big by American standards, we still found ourselves too full for il secondo (meat or fish course).  We’re still working on adapting our eating style to fit in with the Italian lifestyle.

We realized that we were quite close to the beach; in fact, we drove just a little way down the road before finding a small parking area with beach access.  We pulled in then walked a short distance to the water.  The beach was practically empty - I think the whole time we were there, we saw maybe two or three other people, and a couple of dogs.  The weather was perfect for walking along the shore - the sun was out, it was in the mid-60s F (maybe about 18 C), there was no wind…the Adriatic was very calm and blue.  My husband claims he saw several fish jumping out of the water.  If we’d had our beach chairs with us, we could have parked ourselves there for the rest of the day.  

We saw several boats - one appeared to be a ferry; another was a small cruise ship (think Spirit of Philadelphia-style); and a third was some kind of industrial-looking ship that was heading into the port.  The sand at Termoli beach is a little different than that found along the New Jersey shore - it feels springier somehow when you walk on it.  I am not sure what makes it so, but it was interesting.  I couldn’t get over the fact that we were practically the only people there - if I was a local, I’d be there every nice day.

After our little beach interlude, we returned home and put our little apartment in order with the things we bought, then took a little siesta before heading out for dinner down the street at Bar One, which is more pizza place than bar.  As we discovered, there is no printed menu; they have a display case with three or four kinds of pizza (flatbread style, not round), and you just select from what’s available and they bring it to your table.  He had some kind of hot salami on his (it was a little spicy, but not what I would call “hot”); my pizza had corn, artichokes, and some sort of pork/ham kind of meat, not prosciutto I don’t think, but similar.  No, there was no tomato sauce on these, but there was a generous amount of cheese.  They were very good; I’d have never thought to put corn or artichokes on pizza, but I assure you, it works.  Instead of bringing the pizzas to us on plates, they presented the two orders together on a wooden board that we realized was cut into the shape of the map of Molise.  The two orders of pizza and a glass of red wine each cost us a total of €12 (a bit less that $14).

Afterward, we took our nightly passeggiata (stroll around town - this is a thing in Italy) and went to what we think of as the local watering hole for a glass of red wine - only to run in to our friend from yesterday - the older gentleman who was so excited to speak with us.  He bought us each a glass of wine; but he left shortly thereafter.  Several other locals came over to chat with us; one of the bartenders spoke a little English so she translated for everyone.  I have to say, the residents here are very friendly folks!  I think I’ve spoken to more people in this town over the last two days than I’ve spoken to in our US neighborhood in the last 12 years - and we’re not even speaking the same language!