Two weeks in Italy - A visit to Pescara

Another day, another view of the town and a new sky over Atessa. Such a peaceful place to be, just the chugging of a tractor tilling the fields around us and the odd bird call. The driver of the tractor had a great technique: he would drive up the hill (whichever he was working that day) and then plough down to the bottom, using gravity to help him.

We needed to find an internet connection for academic reasons, and the Web is not yet a large part of rural life in this part of the world, so we decided to go off in search of an internet cafe. One of the larger towns in our region of Chieti seemed a good idea, so we set off for Lanciano, with Pescara as back up. We had managed to lay our hands on a guide book to the region and the author, Luciano di Grigorio, waxed lyrical about the shopping in Pescara. We'd not really gotback into the swing of the siesta habit, so while Lanciano was a very lovely town, it was also very closed when we got there. We decided to return another day, and drove on to Pescara, on the coast and where the nearest airport to Casa Pietra in located (with flights from Stansted, not so useful for us West Country folks).

I was actually very underwhelmed by the shops of Pescara, though I must admit that my limited range for walking did get in the way of a determined shop crawl. We managed to find an air-conditioned cafe in which to eat a very welcome late lunch and rehydrate ourselves. Then an internet connection was sought and eventually found in an internet cafe - there is a road containing several near to the railway station. The necessary academic material was duly downloaded onto a memory stick, and we were free to see some sights.

The Piazza Italia was a pretty urban breathing space, with its fountain and trees, by the Provincial Library and Offices, and we managed to find some parking there for a while.

 

Unfortunately the clouds gathered and it began to rain: a showery day.

We decided to return home along the coast road, the SS16.  This coastal area is known as the Costa Dei Trabocchi for the wooden fishing huts on stilts which can be seen.  The clouds were also creating some amazing skies:-

We decided to stop at one of the Fish Restaurants along the road for supper, but it was hard to spot them before we had gone past them, so we had travelled down to Fossacesia before we found the one we dined in, Ristorante Il Pescatore.  It was delicious, although it was hard to choose for the one of us who does not like fish.  The seafood was so fresh and delicious and the prawns could be eaten, shells and all.  I'm glad to say that they also served the semifreddo di torrone, for which I had developed a bit of a taste.

Then it was back to Casa Pietro, ready for our beds.

A Week in Essaouira - 3: Doors 2

Many doorways have doors-within-doors, as above and below.

My husband told me that this was the door into the women's mosque but, as a non-moslem, entry was still forbidden to me.

Lovely carved plasterwork (gep) above blue and white tiles and studded blue door.

A door to a shop or a workshop, close to the ancient ramparts - matched by my son's t-shirt!

Another beautiful pair we stumbled upon in the maze of medina streets.

The entrance to the artisanal school and workshops by the Bab (Gate) Marrakesh.

And a lovely defunct doorway arch in an alleyway by the old (pink) medina walls, beside the Villa Maroc.

A Week in Essaouira - 2: Doors 1

Essaouira is a town of white and blue. Doorways often feature these colours, though not invariably....

A coastal town, it's buffeted by the Atlantic winds and this results in wonderfully weathered paintwork - although the door owners might not agree with the wonderful...

The streets are quite easy to navigate as Essaouira as we now know it was built on the European grid system, but the town maintains a certain mystery, secrets behind its doors.

There's something so organic about the colours. They echo the colour of sky and cloud, of sea and foam.




You never know what lies around the corner, let alone behind the doors.

The lovely zellige tiling is less commonly seen in Essaouira than in the Cinnamon City, Marrakesh, but still it exists here and there.

A Week in Essaouira - 1

The door to Dar Zette

After the wet and grey summer in England (and Wales, where we spent a fortnight) we were feeling very sun-deprived. We decided to push out the boat and have another break away from home, hoping to boost our vitamin D in preparation for the winter. A new flight route between Bristol and Marrakech made Morocco an easier possibility, and some research turned up a lovely and available villa, Dar Zette. Essaouira appealed because it is on the coast, it has the reputation for being more laid-back than Marrakech, and without the pushiness and mopeds in the souks, and because my blogging friend Elizabeth loves it there, and she has wonderful taste.

We actually took the very first flight to Marrakech from Bristol, and there were celebrations: Ryanair had provided Morrocan pastries and hors d'eouvres by the check in desks (sadly with no gluten-free options) and also belly dancers, whose music we heard as we queued for security but regrettably otherwise missed. I'm not sure that we were really expected when we arrived at the other end, as traffic control required us to circle the city some six or so times before we were allowed to land. This was actually quite interesting as I was beginning to find inspiration in the patterns on the dessert and the cultivated areas of land, and was about to request my camera from the overhead locker when we were given clearance and a slot. The first passengers off the plane were filmed for local television so maybe the cameraman was delayed getting to the airport.... The air was pleasantly warm as we stepped out of the plane and onto Moroccan soil.

Anyway, we were there and all went smoothly if slowly. I had wheelchair assistance at the airport and was whizzed through passport control but then was parked for about three quarters of an hour while the rest of the family made their way through the queues at immigration/passport control. Eventually we were reunited and we found our driver for the journey to the coast.

The drive takes about two and a half to three hours, through a slowly changing landscape. The city gives way to the garden centres of the suburbs and then to red-soiled land punctuated by farms, settlements and little towns, trees and earth-built walls, the odd berber tent and goats. Eventually the earth began to turn paler with flecks of white. We stopped for a comfort break in a small town whose name I never discovered, and a bite to eat (most welcome, after breakfast at 4 a.m.), Then on, through roadworks due to an upgrading of the road surface, and pausing at a viewpoint to admire the lovely view over Essaouira and the sea. Essaouira reflected the colours of the locality: most buildings are white with blue paintwork, within the red medina walls. We arrived at Bab Marrakesh, to be met by Foued and fought over by two porters who wished to carry our baggage the short distance to the Dar. Foued sorted out this squabble and we were duly whisked along the street a short distance, to turn off the street into a covered alleyway and at the end stood the door to our home-for-a-week.

Moroccan houses contain secret treasures inside plain trappings, and Dar Zette was no different. The door opened through an arch into the courtyard, a quiet haven despite being only a few yards from one of the Medina's main streets. The white-painted walls, blue fountain, pretty central olive tree and warm terracotta floor tiles created a cool and calm atmosphere. We were welcomed by our maid, Sadir, and through Foued we arranged for her to cook us a tagine for dinner that evening. We were a little alarmed to be told that the water was cut off due to an explosion, but this turned out to be a mistranslation and there had been a burst water main, which cut off the water supply to all the town. We were assured that work was underway to restore the water, and meanwhile we had bottles of drinking water in the fridge.






So now all we had to to was to choose our bedrooms, settle in and make ourselves at home, explore and relax and look forward to eating the delicious tagine of chicken with lemons and olives being prepared for our delight.