More Sperlonga

Today we went back to Sperlonga to enjoy more time at the beach. Before leaving Pico, there were several interactions with the neighbors:

• When Paul grabbed the indifferenziato waste bin, Angela our neighbor told him we have been working too hard and she was glad to hear we were going to spend today at the beach.
• Biaggio was also happy to hear we were going to the beach and inquired about where we parked last night. I had a feeling he would notice and ask. It’s not done in a nosy way; it’s neighborly and everyone knows what’s happening with everyone else.
• We didn’t see Ana, but when walking by her apartment we heard an accordion for the second time this week, so perhaps that’s her.
• We saw Federica and her children and gave Manuelle a little motorcycle toy for his 6th birthday. He was very excited and she invited us to coffee which we politely declined to try and get to the beach. 

We need to start buffering in more time for neighborhood interactions when going any place. Paul had mentioned in April that unlike Belmont where you could walk for blocks and block without saying a word to anyone, almost everyone says “buongiorno” or another greeting to you. And if you know them, it is usually a stop and a conversation. 

The drive to the beach takes under 40 minutes and today that included our pit stop to watch the goat herder move his flock. The view is mostly olive groves, bales of hay, concrete houses with terra cotta roofs with a backdrop of the mountains. We passed our first Burger King, seeing a McDonalds yesterday for the first time near Fondi. 

Ten minutes away from the beach the landscape and temperature changes. It feels hotter as we’re no longer in the mountains, there’s a lot of palm trees and cacti, and we encountered a traffic light. There are no traffic lights in Pico.  

We spent the rest of the day in Sperlonga at the Raggio di Sole beach club and then at the town center. The water in Sperlonga is clear, there’s 3-4″ fish swimming around but they don’t bother us, the sand is soft, the water is warm and there are minimal waves. We had two prosciutto and mozzarella sandwiches and a caprese salad for lunch, accompanied by Aperol Spritzes and finished with espressos of course. D has taken to the afternoon espressos. 

For dinner we drove a few minutes down the road to the foot of the Sperlonga borgo where we had dinner at Cucino Io (translates to I Cook) right by the water. By Italian standards we dined early (8:30pm) enjoying burrata cheese with anchovies and tomatoes as a starter, octopus and potatoes for Paul and I for dinner, and stewed salt cod (baccala) drenched in butter with vegetables for D. We dined at Cucino Io three years ago so it was nice to return and watch the sunset and enjoy a non-carb heavy meal. 

After a quick walk through town to see the vendors selling jewelry and clothes, we stopped briefly for gelato and to see the little kids lining up to watch the puppet show which was supposed to begin at 10pm. It was time for us to call it a night. Sperlonga was buzzing with people young and old, and we’ll be back there again throughout the week.