Road Trip - Part 3

Sunday April 1, we awoke after both having had a good nights sleep following our long drive into the late evening yesterday, feeling refreshed and ready to go again.  Feeling a little dejected after yesterday’s fiasco at finding accommodation, the first thing we did after breakfast was to find ourselves accommodation for the next two days.  We found a hotel in Francavilla Al Mare, which turned out to be only about 45 minutes away.  And, making us even happier, the rooms were only 40 Euros a night – that makes up for our two somewhat extravagant nights.  Hope this place is as good as advertised because the price is too good to believe!

Feeling pleased with ourselves and looking forward to a short jaunt, off we went.  We arrived shortly in Francavilla, but once again Greta had a problem finding the location of the hotel..  She kept taking us down a little alley, and because we were having difficulty finding street signs, we were not sure if she was right in her choice or not.  Finally, we stopped two gentlemen out for their Sunday stroll and attempted to see if they could help us.  Once they understood (it’s all in the pronunciation) where we wanted to go, they gave us directions.  Great, I can understand straight, left and right, but everything else before after and in between, is totally foreign to me!  Sensing our confusion, one of the gentleman offered to put his friend in the car with us to take us where we needed to go, while he headed off somewhere.  Looking a little reluctant, our new  “friend” climbed in the back seat (I knew there was a good reason for getting a 4 door) and started us on our way.  Turns out Greta was about 4 blocks and one street off in her directions.  We had probably driven past the hotel at least twice, but were so focused on finding a street name that ran perpendicular to the one we were on, that we didn’t even see it.  By 12:30 we were all checked in, bags unpacked and ready to relax.  Bonus!! 

First thing we do is headed to the beach, to see the Adriatic.  The color was amazing, an blue-green, and having always thought the beaches of the Adriatic were pebbly, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were soft fine sand.  They stretched for miles.  As far as you could see in the distance in either direction was beach.  And directly behind the beach were rental accommodations.   The beautiful clear sky that we had started the morning with was quickly giving way to fog and a wind that had a bit of a bite to it was starting to whip up the waves.  When we had gotten up in the morning in Chieti, we could see the snow capped mountains of Croatia, but in the 3 hours since you could not even tell that they were there.

The mountains of Croatia as seen from our hotel in Chieti

the Adriatic

Next on the agenda was to search for some lunch.  This was not going to be as easy as in Rome.  Because it was off season and Sunday, the hotel restaurant was closed, and so were many other places.  We did find a little cafeteria/bar that opened at 1pm and had our lunch there.  Next was time to do some touring.  As the day was overcast, gloomy, threatening rain, I thought it was appropriate weather to head to a small town called Ortona, that was the site of a fierce battle in  December 1943, and where about 1300 Canadian soldiers and about 400 other Commonwealth soldiers are buried.  The search begins, I didn’t have a street address, but “Shirley” it is well signed and most would know where it was.  “Shirley”-- NOT!  We saw signs for a cemetery, but could not locate it.  Then we stopped a few people and and asked, but the were not form the town, then I spyed a couple more of our vintage, and asked them.  Remember “it,s all in the pronunciation”, well I was asking for directions to the cimiteri (sim – i – terry) they were not understand even when I said WWII.  They walked away talking then suddenly turned around and said questioningly Cimiteri (chim – i – terry?), Yes, Yes, that’s it.  Everyone is all smiles!  Then they start giving directions – left, right, hand signals, 1 km, towards Pescara – we think we can find it.  Wrong again.  Feeling dejected and tired, and as gloomy as the weather, we head back to our hotel. 

After a bit of a nap, and some improvement in the weather we head north about 7km to explore the town of Pescara and look for a place for supper.  As we are driving along we spot a wonderful looking pedestrian bridge that takes you from one side of the harbour to the other, we will have to explore that more tomorrow.  Then we see that there is something going on in a big square and a lot of people are gathering.  We find a parking space, and explore further.  There are children's rides set up, a stage with a choir performing and trinket and food seller’s abound.  Then I spot a sign that explains what is happening.  It is Palm Sunday, on the Christian calendar and tonight at 9pm there will be a reenactment of the 12 stations of the cross.  Should be interesting, so we hang around to see what is going to happen.  About 8:15, we take a seat on a bench near where we think things will start.  An older couple come and share the bench  with us and as often happens, they asked us something in Italian, we say we don’t understand much, they ask where are you from and before you know it we have spent a half hour “conversing” finding out a little about each other, both sides happy to have practiced our language skills and feeling that we have both understood and been understood.  We parted way with the customary cheek kissing, and found a vantage point to view the proceedings.

All of a sudden the street lights are turned out!!  Then people start handing out and lighting about 18” X 1” candles, which are soon held high.  The distribution and lighting of the candles happens either side of barricades, over a course of about 10 to 12 blocks down the street.  The loudspeaker comes on, the choir starts singing, performers start onto the street and the story of Christ’s passion begins.  We were able to see a bit of it before the crowd started moving forward, then could only hear what was happening.  Because we couldn’t see anything or understand the language, we opted to leave before everything was over.