DAY 93

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Charles and Dian went to get coffee at the camp cafe and chatted with Monica, one of the camp staff, while Nicole lingered in bed and read Dracula. True to his word, the chef officially named our pizza "O'Live Me," and even let us keep a copy of the menu. With that we bade farewell to camp Lido Salpi and left for a day's drive up the coast to Pescara.

Nicole and the camp staff

Strange, stilt-fishing shacks unique to the region

Inspired by Dian's sister Monica, we set out on a mission to find gelato, and find it we did. Pulling into Marina di San Vito by chance, the first shop on the left we saw happened to be a hoppin' gelateria! Screeching to a halt, we jumped out of the car and each ordered a cone or cup: Dian, two chocolate scoops, Charles, one scoop of bittersweet chocolate and one scoop lemon, and Nicole, one scoop hazelnut and one a local chocolate and nut mix. We unanimously agreed it was one of, if not the best gelato we had ever had.

Poster for the puppet show!

Treats in hand, we strolled around the town and onto the water's edge. There was a good vibe from the whole place, in part because lots of children were playing happily in the street, couples were sharing coffees, and there were even advertisements for an old style puppet show the next day, which would be held in the local library.

Eventually we left, though we still threatened to come back the next day for the puppet show. We were on the outskirts of Descara when we parked next to a park, deciding to free-camp for the night.

Walking along the fairly upscale strip, Dian and Nicole ducked into a restaurant to use the WC, but upon perusing the oh-so-reasonably priced menu, we decided to eat there, lest we should disturb the residential area we were parked in with our cooking in the van.

The waiter, Enrico, spoke great English (he had been to LA many times as the employee of a cruise ship), and patiently waited as we decided whether we wanted the €1 antipasto or the €1,50. Instead we got a big pizza and some house wine, which was still well within our budget. A hard lesson was learned, however, when the bill revealed there was a coreta, a cover charge, which greatly "enhanced" our tab.

Avoiding the man randomly trying to sell Charles an industrial-sized roll of toilet paper, we left the restaurant. Getting back to our van we saw no other cars were on our street anymore, Though we could not see any signs saying otherwise, we thought it best to move on, and settled on a parking lot a few blocks away.