Giulianova
Sunday, October 26th, 2014
Giulianova is not a particularly famous or noteworthy town in Abruzzo. It is one of those beach resorts on the Adriatic to which people in the area (and even from Rome) flock to in the summer. There are two towns, the alta (high one) and the low one, also called the lido. So why did we spend a week there? This began a year ago when I rented a car and set out to explore the Adriatic coast. I met a family through an organization called Servas. They have a nice house in the Giulianova alta and also have an apartment that they bought some years ago in the lido just a block or so from the sea. The latter they bought primarily for the use of their kids so they wouldn’t continually have to schlep them to and from the beach all summer. Last year they let me stay there for a couple of days (you can see the post that I did by clicking here). I had some correspondence with Aurelia, the mom, during last year and she offered me the use of the apartment for a week in October rent free. I like Abruzzo and figured that it would be worth exploring the town and the surrounding area a bit so we took a train from Bologna to Giulianova. Aurelia met us at the station and the beach apartment is surprisingly close to the station – a good thing since the suitcase weighs a ton and is a bit unwieldy even on wheels.
We thoroughly explored Giulianova, at least as much as possible without a car, but that’s not that hard because it is not too big. We had a great dinner at Osteria Moro with the 9 course seafood antipasto and a frittura of little fish and frutti di mare. We arrived on a Friday and the next day to a half hour train ride to Teramo (the capital city of the province) where we met Aurelia and her husband Paolo at a great traditional Abruzzo restaurant for dinner (on us of course).
Fritto misto at Osteria Moro
Those strange critters again – mantis shrimp
One of the highlights of the trip was a little bar close to the apartment where we got to know the proprietory Jimi – at least a little bit. He’s an Albanian who came to Italy 18 years ago and purchased the bar “Bar dagli Amici†about 3 years ago which he operates most of the time alone but with a little help from his wife. He was very nice and generous and that’s one of those special memories that come about when traveling and one of those special treats that flow from having at least a reasonable command of the language.
Stairs to the upper (and older) town of Giulianova
Principle square at the upper town,
View of the “lido” of Giulianova
With Jimi and spouse at his bar.
