Well this weekend I had a stay-cation in Monte Di Procida. Again, the generosity of the community here is amazing! On Friday I met up with someone copied on emails started back in April. No- I'm not hanging out with strangers, well, strangers to me but the degree of separation is no more than 3. Someone I worked with put me in touch with someone who had recently left Italy. Laurie then started to email me with info and put me in touch with others- including the fabulous Cynthia who I met for lunch on Friday. By the end of the lunch she had offered to show me around MdP, let me crash at her place, and then go hiking this morning out at Carney Park. Um yes please!
Monte Di Procida is for sure where I'm going to live- but I still need to figure out which place to claim. On my tour we entered the town a new way because it's going to be crucial to know all the routes should traffic be ridiculous. (Think Del Monte Ave. on a gorgeous holiday weekend, with all that construction they were doing, and it only being two lanes...with no traffic lights.) No, I'm not crazy because once you make it through one of the various towns and make your way up the hill this is one of the views awaiting you.
As we drove around the town during risposare, the afternoon break, most of the stores were closed up, but few people still walking around the main piazza. As we drove down towards the water, that's where we found more people. The parking lots were full, scooters lined up along the pier, and many boats were out for the day. For those of you who make it out in the summer months we'll be taking a ferry out to Procida or Ischia for the day. Still not 100% sure what's out there other than beaches, food, and stores but I think it would be fun to see the different view and I've never been one to turn down being on the water. Okay, I'll do more recon prior to your visit! The town is super cute, lots of little shops selling one type of item- produce, bread, meat, etc. No Safeway for one stop shopping may take a little while to get used to, but maybe this way I'll learn to enjoy grocery shopping a little more?
After the tour we went back to her place and I think I fell in love with the idea of having a veranda which unfortunately apt #1 from the last search doesn't have. The view from her apartment was fabulous although it was more over the hill side than of the water, but you still saw plenty of sparking blue. (The night view was amazing too!) We chatted about Italy and other destinations while sipping on bubbly and taking in the view on the perfect late June day.
Once we realized it was turning to dinner hours (American dinner hours, not Italian), we walked a block away to her favorite restaurant. I'd been told about this place and Meriella before even stepping foot out of Monterey and let me tell you, it lived up to everything I'd been told. Both Meriella and her husband, Pepe were so friendly and since we were the only table in the place until 8pm they kept stopping by and talking. The food? Fabulous!
As you can see, we had quite the antipasti collection: bruschetta (broos-ke-ta), grilled veggies, stuffed cuttlefish, sardines, belt fish, stuffed zucchini blossoms (YUM), octopus, calamari on a stick, shrimp. We did the sea food route and it was fabulous. I think when I ate the calamari the words "it tastes like home" escaped my mouth. Fish that I normally wouldn't try (sardines) were yummy soaked in vinegar and then drizzled with olive oil then dusted with dried chili pepper. Cuttlefish are surprisingly sweet and just may become part of my diet now that I'm over the fact that they are one of my favorite displays at the aquarium...please don't tell me they are on the watch list!
After all those amazing tastes of fish paired perfectly with basil, tomato, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mint, garlic, mint, pine nuts, or chili pepper we decided we had room for primi piatti, although the idea of skipping to secondi piatti which is typically a protein like sea bass was rather tempting. Again, after Meriella listed our options the fresh seafood sounded amazing so we ordered pasta alle vongole (pasta with claims) and a fabulous fat, chewy noodle that name escapes me today but the translation in English mean "splat" because of the sound it makes when you put it in water to cook it. Maybe it wasn't "splat" but pick one of those onomatopoeias, translate it into Italian and then you'll have the name of the pasta. I believe it's one of the local shapes of this region. At any rate it was fabulous topped with tomato sauce, eggplant, and cheese.
That's where we ended this meal. After Meriella learned I was moving to the area she told me to stop by for un caffe or another meal. I have a feeling this will be a regular place for me, at least when people are in town. She also offers cooking lessons! Yep. I should just ask for a part time job of sous chef on the weekends.
A quick walk around the corner and we were back at Cynthia's place. Granted, if I live in the kitchen apartment my walk would be about 5 minutes more...okay, maybe 10 after all that food and up hill, but that just means I could have had another stuffed baby cuttlefish!
End of this stay-cation's first day. How great is it to live within an hour of amazing locations?
