The Mountains and The Beach

It was another unsettled weather day so instead of the beach we headed toward the mountains and the Campo Imperatore. This is certainly one of the wonders of the natural world and it is only one hour away. I heard the National Geographic has declared Puglia the most beautiful place in the world, but I say Abruzzo is. However, it is nice to know we have spent time the last two summers in the two most beautiful places in the world. 

Our goal for yesterday was the town of Castelli. 

This town has been a center for ceramics for 100s of years. 

Castelli majolica is know the world over and is represented in many museums 

including the Met and the Guggenheim. The ceramics museum was destroyed in the earthquake, but reopened two years ago. It is a beautiful museum and includes photos from the old studio and the equipment the potters used. 

We went with our friend Italian Babe.

Cool and weird and old. 

An important image for Castelli potters is the Madonna feeding the baby Jesus. 

Hence it is Important to be able to make breasts as well as hands and feet. 

This is an old photo of the potter loading the wood fired kiln. 

These cylinders were used to fire plates. 

The plates go inside and are separated by little pegs that go in the holes. Very clever I say. 

And after a wonderful day in the mountains, 

dinner at a new pizza place in Goriano with Italian and Danish friends. 

One of the beauties of Castelvecchio is that you can go to the wildest place on the planet one day and the beautiful beaches of the Adriatico the next. And that is what we did yesterday. We have a new favorite beach which in sight of our old favorite beach, but has the added advantage of a life guard, trash cans, and a path that does not risk breaking your legs! We have our Danish friends to thank for this new piece of great intel. 

We stayed all day and had lots of delicious food. The water is a weird color because of a storm somewhere. The wind was quite strong coming off the ocean and the waves were thrilling.

After a day at the beach we drove to the near by city of Lanciano. It is one of the best preserved medieval  cities in Abruzzo. This was a recognizance mission, but we will be returning later this week in our continued quest to prove there is no reason to go to Roma.