Wednesday - Siesta and FOOD

Its a little later when I'm posting this (and some have even emailed to say they haven't heard from me today) - so I'm sending it from my pager which means the pictures are all lined up first.
Today was our Siesta day - lots of naps, and at the beginning of the day I thought we wouldn't have much to blog today. We'll see.

I napped, the others went down to the pool - they saw a drama play out amongst the teens here. A group of guys were picking on (flirting with) a girl and throwing her into the pool. During one such incident, her top came off and she was fully exposed. She was obviously very angry, but the boys were having a great time with it. She did the classic Italian gesture with the flick from under the chin several times.

Patti came up to nap, and Amy and Dana went back down to the beach to nap and look for sea glass, others were looking at them and wondering what is that girl picking up? One woman saw and said in English, "Ah, colored glass" - They found a batch of cool little crabs, and I wondered why they didn't bring them up for dinner. (They're only as big as a quarter) - I'll post pics of the crabs tmw, they're on Dana's camera.

But we have seen many people fishing in this area, coming back with octopus and mussels - bashing the octopus (about the size of a softball with tentacles) on the rocks repeatedly and eating mussels straight from the sea. At first we thought they were bashing them to kill them - they pick them up and spike them down into the rocks - but then we thought maybe they were tenderizing them.

Once we were all up, we made a late lunch to tide us over for late dinner. Just boiled up a little pasta and sauce, but no there is no salt or pepper (not provided). So it was a little bland, but did the trick.

After lunch (which was during siesta at about 3), we taught Dana how to play spades and played a few rounds until it was time to get ready for the 7:10 bus.

The bus stop is just outside the grounds of the compound, and we went out to wait for the bus because we figure that we can take the bus in and then a taxi back.. Some guy drove by and even pulled over on the other side of the street to yell something at us about the bus (all in Italian), but even if we understood, we wouldn't have been able to hear. We look at the bus schedule and put it together with what the driver had told us yesterday (that if he weren't off he would take us someplace) .... And dang the time on the schedule is the time the bus comes to the stop, but it doesn't go back to the city, so it doesn't pick up. So we thought we would have the front desk call us a taxi - but they had their driver take us, which is the same driver who picked us up from the train.

We had the restaurant in mind that we tried to go to last night - Pierino l'Inglise - but Jon thought we should try another place that overlooks the sea. We thought we could try it tonight and then go to Pierino tmw night, but at 8:00 they other place wasn't open yet, so we went with our original choice, and thought we cld eat at Jon's place tmw. Pieroni is a place where there are no choices, no menu, just what they make, and we weren't sure how many courses. The waiter is the same one we saw last night, "anything for you" is his favorite phrase. And we learned his name is George. He ran down the list and what we heard was rice, Pasta, and "fish in the middle" - ok? Ok. We're game.

First course, antipasta course - wow! They just kept setting down plates! Fried hush puppies, rolls, beets, octopus (cooked and uncooked), sardines, mussells, oysters, fresh mozzarella, and cucumbers... The cooked octopus was incredible - we could have eaten that all night. Its like a meatier calimari served with a vinegar, we tried the raw and it was ok, just not much flavor, so George dressed it up for us, olive oil and red pepper - a little better. (And for those of you wondering what Dana ate... She tried everything except for the mussells and the beets)

Second course - pasta with red sauce, shrimp and mussels and risotto with white sauce and clams and calimari. And they gave us a *pitcher* of wine (just asked red or white), and a *bottle* of water. Its the opposite of what we expect back home, and if the wine pitcher goes down, they take it and refill it - unlimited wine, but pay for the water by the bottle. Go figure.

Third course - big fried prawns the size of the palm of your hand, and then when we each take one, they take that plate and replace that with a pile of fried things, little fish (not sure what they are), calimari, other fish... And then two large grilled fish to share...

Fourth course - he brings plates and new silverware, and a cute cup of refreshing lemon ice to clear the palette... We are more than satisfied, And then they bring a HUGE platter of fruit, watermelon, honeydew, cherries, furoni (looks like a lime on the outside and papaya like on the inside), and little ice cream cones... You gotta be kidding me.

We are STUFFED! At each course we had no idea what was coming next, but we tried to eat as much as possible so we didn't leave huge portions and insult them. Wow. And all that for only 25 Euro each. We're now wondering if the other place serves up the courses like this - there is now way we can eat like this for two nights straight.

We got our pic with George - and then had them call us a taxi, we thought Jon would be back (our driver from the hotel) - but it was Pietro. Spoke no English, but we got most of it.

We're now back at the room just laying around like bloated lions sunning after a feast. We hear the World Cup echoing through everyone's tv set. We are going to try and sleep, and digest. And we may be siestaing all day tmw too. I'm posting pics of all the food so you get some idea... But you have no idea... I can't believe we ate the whole thing....

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