It’s been great to see teachers here taking advantage of the local historical sights in teaching students. We saw a class of small children seated on the pavement learning about inscriptions over an ancient doorway, high school students touring the archeological museum, and students around town with sketch pads capturing images of the beautiful architecture.
We’ve spent a few quiet days in Ascoli Piceno. We like it because it’s laid back, fairly small (46,000 people) and not a hill town. 😊 Wednesday and Saturday are market days. The produce seller in the photo below helped us pick out some dolce (sweet) white grapes. They are in season, crisp, juicy, and very delicious!
There is plenty to do here as there is an Archeological Museum, an art museum, Roman ruins, and beautiful gardens for contemplation.
We spent part of the morning at the Pinotecca Civica, the city’s art gallery in the 13th Century Palazzo Arringo. This colorful image of San Rocco, surrounded in gold, by Pietro Alamanno was especially beautiful.
We’ve enjoyed some local favorite foods including the stuffed, breaded, and fried green olives – called olive all’ascolana and sandwiches on focaccia called cacciannanze – filled with thin-sliced meat, cheese, and maybe eggplant or roasted peppers. Plus, there is a Chocolate Festival in the Piazza del Popolo!
And, the local wine is very good!
Our favorite quirky restaurant is called Quarto Basto. There wasn’t a printed menu, the options were limited, and the waitress chuckled at our attempts to order in Italian. The gnocchi was good and the atmosphere lots of fun – dining is late here and people begin to arrive at the restaurant between 8:00-8:30.
Tomorrow we’ll retrieve the rental car to drive north to the seaside town of Sirolo, where we’ll spend 2 nights. All, is well here and we hope the same for you!