Italian Interlude, part 1

  You may have the universe if I may have Italy.   Giuseppi Verdi

On Thursday,  February 16, Tom and I left London for an extended weekend in Italy. Adam and Cristina had been contracted to play a concert together in a town south of Bologna on the Adriatic and we were fortunate to be able to spend the weekend with them and to hear the concert.  We flew out of Gatwick Airport and had a beautiful view of  the Alps the day after a record snowfall. As I took this picture with my Iphone, I found it hard to believe we were flying over the Alps.

We spent the first night in the captivating city of Bologna (which I will come back to in Italian Interlude, Part III)  and on Friday morning we boarded a train to Civitanova Marche.  Civitanova Marche is a seaside resort on the Adriatic which was probably founded around the 8th century BC.  In 50 AD, the Romans captured it and started a new settlement Civitanova Alta on a hill near the sea.  

The first things we saw when we entered the town were posters and billboards of Adam and Cristina's concert!  Of course, I had to take a picture of all of them.  

The seaside town of Civitanova Marche was a charming town with palm trees, great shopping, colorfully painted buildings and of course, fantastic food.    

apartment building on the square in Civitanova Marche

the town square with palm trees and leftover snow!

town center in the square of Civitanova Marche

Easter chocolates were already displayed in the store 

Fresh pasta was everywhere                                                  

 

Thanks to Trip Advisor we found a delicious restaurant for lunch.  A two hour lunch with complimentary dessert  and dessert wine.  This was our dessert at ZERO733 restaurant.  The filling in this piadina was chocolate and vanilla .  The piadina is an Italian flatbread from this region in Italy (the Romagna region) 

The sunset from our hotel, hilltop town of Civitanova Alta in the distance.