A relaxing day

I barely left my immediate area today. Slept until 10. Man I was pooped. Skipped breakfast and did a little work, and went out around 1 to get lunch. Yesterday at Restaurant Pallaro I asked an Australian couple how they had heard of the place as it is hidden away in one of the thousand tiny piazzas here accessible only by scooter or smart car. They had been given a list which they shared with me, and on it was a restaurant not but two blocks from my hotel.

La Gallina Bianca was bustling with Italians at lunch – men and women in beautiful suits – and nary a tourist to be seen. I had a huge spinach salad with mushrooms and cheese and a plate of orecchiette (ear–shaped pasta) in olive oil with broccoli and clams. Orecchio is the Italian word for ear; they often name their pasta very literally (think bow-tie pasta). While drinking my espresso, the waiter brought me a complimentary glass of limoncella.

I suppose, at this point, limoncella is best known for intoxicating Danny DeVito prior to his drunken appearance on The View, but it is a delightful after-dinner liqueur made from lemons. It is sweet, but not overwhelmingly so and widely available in small gift sizes at the tourist stores. I was inspired to bring some back. Luckily, I stopped at an actual liquor store though and somehow while he spoke no English and I no Italian, the owner conveyed to me that the best limoncella comes from Sorrento or Amalfi and that most of the stuff in the tourists stores comes from other regions where lemons do not grow as well. In Sorrento and Amalfi, which are in the south, they grow to gargantuan sizes. Unfortunately, he did not carry gift-size bottles, only normal-sized ones. I bought one to keep in my refrigerator -- he explained it must be drunk freddo, molto freddo (very cold) as he gave me a sample – but armed with this knowledge, I was able to find some smaller bottles of the good stuff elsewhere.

In general, the fruit here seems bigger and more beautiful. There are fruit carts everywhere, and the fruit looks artificial like it is part of a Hollywood set – the strawberries redder, the lemons yellower. Here are some pretty plums, but those are not apples; they are nectarines.



These last couple of evenings I have been eating a couple of pieces of fruit as dinner. I can’t outgrow the clothes I’ve packed, but I’ll admit I did my best at obtaining a new Italian wardrobe this afternoon. Look at this dress and these shoes!!