For our last full day in Abruzzo, Bill and I decided to visit the city of Chieti. Our host, Carlo, had recommended the city, which is the capital of the province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region. After another hearty breakfast at the B&B, we set off for the city, which is atop a hill/mountain and offers beautiful views. There are some nice museums in Chieti, but we only visited one, and that was because I needed to pee. We parked in a public lot near a military “kaserne” and walked around.

Chieti is kind of gritty, with narrow streets and walkways. I got a sense that it was sort of a working class town, but there was a certain charm to it. Below are some photos…

The cathedral was very beautiful, with a large plaza outside of it. For some reason, graffiti artists decided to deface the walls on the other side of the cathedral. I don’t mind some graffiti, but it’s sad when it’s done to truly beautiful buildings. At least they were decent enough to leave the cathedral itself alone.

After we walked through the cathedral, we made our way down a busy street heading west, and soon found ourselves near the University Museum of Chieti. Here, we found a very cool museum with restrooms! I was glad for that! The entrance fee was reasonable, and the people running the museum were so nice. A lively class of Italian youngsters were having a field trip as we made our way through the many exhibits that showed off everything from taxidermy to medicines. They even had a few mummies in there, which we were requested not to photograph. They were behind a sheer red curtain. Below are some photos from the museum, which was not only interesting, but really allowed me some relief! Most of the descriptions were in Italian.

After we left the museum, we walked to another small chapel, where I got a few more photos, then noticed it was getting close to lunchtime. We were, on this day, determined to have a proper Italian lunch. However, the restaurant close to the museum smelled good, but was very crowded. So we walked out of that area, and started hunting for our midday repast.

We finally saw what appeared to be a restaurant that could accept us. Bill went inside and asked if they were open. The waitress said yes, in twenty minutes. Then she took our reservation. She said it was necessary. We soon found out why! Apparently, La Tavernetta gets very busy at lunchtime. It certainly did when we visited…

We each had two courses, bread, wine, and fizzy water… and when we were finished, we were pretty full. Good thing we didn’t want dessert! When we left, there were people waiting to be seated! I had ravioli with tomato sauce. Bill had ravioli with mushroom sauce. And then we had tagliata– chicken for me, and veal for him. Bill made the cashier smile when he handed her ten euros as a mance (tip). Tipping isn’t a big thing in Italy, so ten euros was pretty generous. It was about twenty percent of the tab, which was surprisingly economical for all we consumed.

It was mid afternoon by the time we finished lunch, and we had limited time for parking, so we headed back to the car. On the way there, we stopped in another church…

Realizing that we’d be heading north the next day, we decided to stop by another grocery store for more goodies. I made sure to buy some candy for Bill’s grandkids, including a bag of Haribo “fried egg” gummies. Since eggs are so expensive in the United States right now, I figured it was appropriate.

Although we had intended, on the last night, to go into Pescara for dinner, we were still too full from lunch to do so. So we stayed in and watched movies from the 80s– Lost in America, National Lampoon’s European Vacation, and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Sometimes I really miss the 80s!

We had one last night in Pescara, then packed up our stuff and headed north to Vipiteno/Sterzing, where we would be trading in our sunny skies for snowy skies. More on that in the next Italy post!