A Traditional Italian Sunday Dinner

From left to right John's mom, Angie, some cousin hidden behind the chair (is that you Terri or is it Linda?), John, Uncle Bob, Grand-mom D'Antonio, Grand-pop D'Antonio, John's Dad. Missing (probably in the kitchen) Aunt Phil.

Our days have been pretty laid back , but we wanted to do something special for our last day in Pescara. We decided to go out for a traditional Sunday dinner. In the world of Italians and Italian-Americans, Sunday dinner is a time of good food, family, friends and camaraderie. In John's family, even though his mother didn't practice the old traditions, whenever he went back to his grandparents on Sunday, it was as old world as as he would ever experience.

Sunday dinner starts anywhere between 12:30 and 3:00 PM. It was generally a three hour affair with antipasti, pasta, entree and long long deserts. Nancy searched for a place that sounded like it might meet those parameters. She found Grotta del Marinaio on the other side of the Pescara river. We rode our bikes over the Ponte del Mare bride (FYI, we only took our car out once in two weeks...and that was to go to an outlet mall so John could buy more clothes).

A little before 1 PM, we made it to Grotta, which isn't a big place...maybe 50 seats in two small rooms. It looks like the set of the Stanley Tucci / Tony Shalhoub movie "Big Night."

We were seated in the back room where there were four table groups: our table for two, a table for four, and two tables for 10-12. When we sat down the place was nearly empty, but almost immediately filled up with families with members ranging from two years old to a granddad celebrating his 84th birthday.

As usual, Nancy asked the waiter, who could speak very little English, what he recommended. To give her credit, Nancy tried to ask in Google Translate Italian. In a quandary, he called over the owner, who also couldn't speak English, but was game for some fun.

We decided to let him order for us. For an appetizer Nancy had mussels in a white wine sauce and John had braised octopus with saffron potatoes. We both had some Pecorino white wine with our antipasti.

After some appropriate time, the next course arrived. The owner, had asked if we wanted pasta with seafood. He said (in Italian that he has spaghetti and fettuccine). John asked if he had Spaghetti Chitarra (see our last post) and he smiled a big knowing smile and shook his head "No" only 'regular' spaghetti. They brought out a spaghetti frutti di mare (spaghetti with the 'fruit of the sea'). With this course we had a rose, that every family in the back room was having.

Spaghetti with sea creatures - Rose - We win the "clean plate" award.

As you can see we cleaned our plates. The waiter asked if we wanted desert, but we said "No, we're still a bit peckish." The waiter sent the owner over to discuss next choices. We told him to bring whatever he thought was good. Soon the owner brought out two new dishes: an arancini pesce (little 'meatball-like things) stuffed with fish and covered in bread crumbs and deep fried and a lemon salmon...oh yea, and another carafe of rose.

Arancini pesce - More Rose - Lemon salmon

Finally we were sated, but there always room for desert. The owner suggested something and we said yes. A confection of delight. Nancy was so happy she kissed the chef, who you can see loved the attention. At the same time the folks at the birthday table, who had been watching us and smiling the whole time, shared with us a piece of granddad's birthday cake. One thing led to another and we ended up with hugs all around.

And so ended our Sunday afternoon Italian dinner. We decided that we're doing Sunday afternoon dinner in every Italian town we visit. We already have reservations for next Sunday.

Note: Just a reminder for those who have asked, if you click on anything that is underlined, it will take you to a page with more information and/or photos (e.g. on the Itinerary page, anything underlined will take you to info about the town or Airbnb we're staying in.

Also, check out the Sights page for new photos.