Before leaving on Sunday though, I went to Fano, which is about an hour or so north up the coast on Saturday night for dinner with Raimondo who was back in Italy for the first time since moving to Spain. About fifteen of us drove from Ancona and met him for a pizza there. The restaurant, called Bella Napoli was named Italy’s 56th best pizzeria at some point in time. Considering the vast number of pizza places in this country (being the 56th best pizzeria in Ancona would be pretty remarkable), I thought that was something, something indeed. The pizza was delicious. Wood fired, a bit thicker crust than is typical for this region, and more chewy than crispy. Francesca, my friend who happens to be from Napoli, said Napolitano pizza is still better so I’m still desperate to go there before this AnconaAnventure™ ends.
We didn’t order until after 10 and I was feeling a bit peckish by then so I ended up having two pizzas (first time for everything), one with sausage and mushroom and another with buffala, prosciutto, and sliced, hard-boiled egg (not my first time for that). It was fantastic to catch-up with Raimondo (he’s doing great in Seville for those of you who are wondering), and to experience the night life in a different city with the guidance of our friend Stefania who lives and works in Fano. We didn’t get back to Ancona until nearly 4 in the morning but fortunately, I didn’t have to leave for Perugia until 2 Sunday afternoon.
For the two hour drive to Perugia it was me and four WAGs packed into a Punto.
We arrived with a few hours to pass before meeting the band at the club for dinner so we headed to the town center for a look around. Much shopping was done, people were watched, coffee was consumed and the time passed.
Later, we met the band back at the club, stole their beer, listened to their sound check and then went to dinner. Dinner was a frenzy – we over-ordered everything and then over-ate – french fries, fried mozzarella, olive ascolane, cheese, cured meat, bruschetta, pizza, grigliata, vegetable gratin, pasta – for the love of Pete stop passing me food!
The restaurant’s Halloween theme was Batman and they did an amazing job with it. Our waiter was a Joker, and not just because he was funny. (Get it?!) Jokers, Catwomen, Bats and Penguins everywhere. The tour manager kept telling us to get a move-on because we were late, but the talent will be ready when the talent is ready, right? Besides, when did a concert ever start on time? Ever? In Italy? After a DJ-set to get the crowd moving, the show finally started at around 1AM. They played in front of a couple thousand people for a good two hours and got called back out for a couple encores. It was pretty amazing. And sweaty.
By the time all the kit was packed and everyone had had enough and we had checked-in at the hotel, it was almost 5 in the morning. As tired as I was, this still did not look inviting.
The alarm sounded at 8 because Giordano forget to reset it. I was half-dressed and had my teeth brushed before Giordano bothered to tell me we still had two hours before we had to check-out at 10. The rain and the holiday traffic going back to Ancona didn’t help the mood or the pounding head, but we stopped for lunch at a restaurant where most of the group are weekly regulars and are known by name. About five minutes after sitting down, two platters of pasta arrived, unordered and unexpected, like the stray puppy you weren’t expecting but that you fall in love with instantly. And then devour. Like that.
And then lunch was on. Three pasta courses. Three main dish courses. Salad. (Whaa? Huh? Who ordered salad? Shoot them. Then take their tortellini and give them to me.) Dessert – cantucci con vin santo – this was new to me and totally different. Vin santo is Saint Wine, the wine they use at mass on special occasions. And cantucci are little almond cookies that you dip in the wine. And then when you finally run out of cookies, you drink the wine. But not the crumbs. Delicious.
Three hours after it all started, it was all over and there was nothing to do but say goodbye, take a long, glorious nap and dream about going back to work on Tuesday.
