Sunday 9th October

Today it was off to Roccascalegna and Tornareccio. The former for the charming village and the fort overlooking it and the later for the Honey Festival at the town called the Queen of Honey in Abruzzo.

The drive to Roccascalegna was uneventful; except for the very winding roads leading up to the town which were happily devoid of much traffic. The roads just seem to wind endlessly up and down until, eventually our destination came into view. Roccascalegna is a really lovely little village and was fairly empty of visitors. We parked easily and walked through the village to the start of the seemingly endless climb to the fort overlooking the town. In the event, the climbs proved to be a bit easier than we anticipated. After walking through the narrow streets we came to the first set of steps which took us to the ticket booth where we bought tickets for the rest of the trip upwards. The steps were sometimes a bit rudimentary and sometimes quite clear but there were handrails for most of the way which made the climb easier. We made it to the small tower at the top where there was a small exhibition and explanation about the fort. You could also ascend one floor above in this tower but I left that to MAC. To say that the views were stunning just does not describe them, adequately. In every direction, there are hills with trees and woods and olive groves. It is just beautiful in every direction. 

The narrow streets of Roccascalegna 

The castle, can we really climb up there?

Many of the homes have cute artwork outside.

On our way up.

A shop selling handmade copper items

The gift shop!!!

Climbing........

A way to go yet.

Need a drink.....?

A very convenient public convenience on the way up.

The last lap

Made it....!!

A damsel in distress that needs to be rescued by a gallant knight!!

Some views from the top

I am lying here in the street....go around.

We descended gingerly to avoid falling and were soon back in the village. We walked back towards the car past a restaurant where tables of diner were having lunch and animated conversations. Many of the houses had small plantings in nooks in the walls and there was a shop selling copper ware, almost certainly made locally. Back at the car we set off on what we thought was the short drive to Tornareccio!! This proved top be longer and more convoluted than we anticipated and involved calling at a town called Bomba but then turning around and going back the other way!! Signs proved confusing and in this area the GPS system is a bit unreliable due to poor signal. After some time we cam to Tornareccio and found a parking spot at the edge of the village. We walked into the center where the festival was in full swing. Having not had lunch we stopped for a Porchetta panini before walking on through the festival site which occupied most of the Centre of the town.

This was one large festival which was much bigger that the grape festival we saw in Alanno. One of the features of the festival was that local artists painted pictures and these were voted on by the attendees of the festival and the winner(s) would have their work turned into a mosaic which would be displayed in the town. On the walls all around the town were the works, in mosaic, of previous year’s festivals. These were very creative, many incorporated bees which are so important to the town, others people or designs.

Some of the 90+ mosaics around the city.

Lunch!!

Not sure what is in them but they taste great!

...another mosaic

The stars of the show....the bees

A local craftsman making baskets.

...and another carving wood.

Churning the honey combs to extract the honey in a centrifuge.

Homage to the bees.

You name it if it concerns bees, it is for sale here

...............more of these delightful mosaics

We stopped and bought some souvenirs and walked on through where there was a bee demonstration with an open glass hive where you could see the bees at work as well as the centrifuge device used to extract the honey from the combs. There were explanations of the life of the bees and, of course, many, many places you could buy honey and other honey products. Honey from every conceivable source, cherries, figs, apples, etc. was available as well as lotions and creams containing honey. There were food stands, demonstrations of basket weaving and wood sculpture as well as lace making. We’d stopped for a scripelle which you could either have with truffle or Nutella. The scripelle is, basically fried dough but quite tasty. The festival got more and more crowded as the afternoon wore on. We thought (!) that is was supposed to end at 4.30 p.m. and we started to leave, stopping at a small café for a cold drink. This café seemed to be the ;hang out’ for the old guys!! Who bantered away, probably wondering who we were and why we had invaded their space! As we walked out of town, people were still streaming into the festival and it was going to get very crowded in the narrow streets. It is good to see the festival being so popular and so well attended. There had not been a festival for a while due to the pandemic so everyone was happy to get together again and enjoy a Sunday out. We visited the festival office where they had books with the painting competition winners for years back as well as other souvenirs of which we bought some. We also bought some small cupcake like items called Bocconotti Frentano which are a very typical kind of Abruzzese pastry and which come in various flavors including chocolate (of course), pistachio, lemon, etc. We thought would please Stefania, (which they did).This was a very enjoyable and worthwhile visit. We were perhaps lucky as some of they festivals in Abruzzo are scheduled for the last weekend in September but this year had to be rescheduled due to the general election which took place on 25^th September.

Then it was back to the car. The organizers had, thoughtfully, posted signs to the autostrada as the other signs did not indicate the way. We soon found the autostrada and after a brief stop for gas, we are our way towards home. Here is where the miscommunication occurred!! MAC got a message from Stefania which said that she and Bruno had to attend a funeral of the wife of an old friend and colleague, in Pescara and ‘they would stay at the house’ overnight. We read this to mean that they would stay in Pescara overnight. And thus we were on our own for dinner. So we found restaurant in Chieti called Arrosticini Il Piccolo Chiosco in Via Curtatone just outside the city. Here we had a very pleasant dinner, of lamb ribs and veal. Our waitress spoke good English and gave us some good advice about places to go in the neighborhood. Although we wer early and then place was empty, the meal was very good. They place is rated highly on TripAdvisor and this is not surprising. Almost as soon as we left the restaurant, there was a call from Stefania, “Where are you? Dinner is ready”. In fact they had returned from Pescara and she had prepared dinner for us. She laughed off the mistake and we were soon home and shared the cakes we had bought.

The forecast for this week is a bit more unsettled  so we will see what we can program around the possible showers.