April 23, 2017. Time to ski in the sun!

LOCATION:  Last day of housesitting at a villa outside of Casoli, Italy in the Abruzzo region

WEATHER:  Beautiful.  Sunny and warm - about 70.  Colder in mountains

 

Today's destination was a ski resort about 30 miles from here.  We can see the mountain where it is located from our house, but of course, the roads don't go directly there.

 

There is still quite a bit of snow on the mountain, but the resort will close this week for the season.  The roads were clear today, but I cannot imagine driving on them in the winter.  They are so narrow and curvy.  There are road signs everywhere reminding drivers that chains are required.

 

This heavy-duty snow plow has its work cut out for itself.

 

There were a lot of people skiing.  Many professional-looking skiers with fancy ski outfits.  Families, too, sledding down the slopes.

 

Snowboarders at this mountain.

 

Gino got out of the car to make a bit of yellow snow.  :-)

 

The mountain top has an elevation of 5500 feet.  In a short distance, we were back at the main town, with an elevation of 1800 feet, confirming that the road up there is super steep.  Also, being Sunday, there were a lot of bicyclists biking up the mountain. I cannot understand why or how they do this.  Looks miserable to me!

 

We spotted a microbrewery (of course) outside of the ski resort town.  It is nice to buy something other than a Peroni, the Italian version of Budweiser.

 

Then, just as we were looking for lunch, we stumbled upon this BBQ shack.

 The owner is a lady from Australia, so we had a nice chat.  She suggested that we have the porchetta.  It is a local dish, a whole pig roasted for several hours in a special oven, then sliced and served with its cracklings. The tab for a beer, wine, bread and a huge platter of porchetta was $13.  The owner gave us some complimentary liver sausage to taste, another local specialty.   We could only eat about half.  We will eat the rest of it tomorrow for lunch on the bus ride to Rome.  

 

Back home, we did some last-minute cleaning and started packing.  This has been one of our best housesitting assignments.  

 

DINNER:  Risotto with leftover seafood from the mixed grill we bought at the fish shop last week.  

 

The homeowner returned about 9:00 PM and picked up the animals.  We are always somewhat relieved when the homeownrs return, with a happy reunion of homeowners and pets.  (All still alive and well). :)