Walters Press: Italy Day 5-Cingoli and San Severino Marche in the Le Marche region and a traditional Italian Christmas Eve

We got a later start today so we only visited two towns: San Severino Marche and Cingoli.

On our way to San Severino we passed what has become one of our favorite stops on our trips to Europe: an abbey. This one was called Abbazia San Claudio al Chienti:

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

Another of my favorite finds in Italy and parts of France have been frescoes (apologies for the low quality photo)

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

The next town was San Severino Marche. A sleepy little town (maybe it was because of the weather) but very nice.

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

The view from the top of San Severino Marche (a very dreary day)

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

We stopped by the Monastero Santa Chira in the town

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

We drove up to Cingoli, which is known as the "balcony of Le Marche" because of the panoramic view all the way to the Adriatic from the town. There wasn't a view today because it started to snow as we were making our way up the hill. I don't have any good photos of the town because of the weather, so this is the best I have to show you

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

We headed back to our Agriturismo because we had been graciously invited to participate in the Italian Christmas tradition: Christmas Eve dinner (which is always fish or seafood) with family. It seems that Christmas Eve is the time that Italians celebrate the holiday rather than us Americans on Christmas morning. What happened that night is now one of our favorite memories EVER from any of our trips. About 20 people gathered in the dining room of the Agriturismo and we had a delicious home cooked meal. I did the best acting job of my life pretending to eat all the seafood that was given to me, while Chris was very sneaky in taking the seafood off my plate and into his mouth! The noodles and broth were amazing. Notice I said "broth" and not "sauce". The biggest difference I've seen in "food in Italy" and "Italian food served in America" is the sauce. Americans love to drown pasta in "Arrabita" or "Alfredo" sauce. Here, the pasta is the star of the dish, never served with a sauce but just a light broth.

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

One of my favorite things about Italy (and it seems Europe in general) is that the food is very localized. Our Agriturismo was just 18 miles from the Adriatic Sea, but when I asked about seafood, the locals told me I needed to go to Ancona (which is where the port is). We would never think twice about our food coming from 18 miles away much less across the United States! The fact that we were served this seafood on Christmas Eve showed that it was truly a special dinner and not a regular occurrence. Chris loved the lobster/shrimp looking dish above (it was smaller than lobster, but larger than shrimp). When he asked the chef what the dish was, he was told it was "not a lobster" but also "not shrimp". (We thought maybe it was Langostino, but that wasn't right either). The chef kept saying "it's from over there" (pointing to the Adriatic) just like it was a local specialty that you couldn't necessarily find in other parts of the world. For the record, we've never seen it anywhere again!

Our new Italian friends at Christmas Eve dinner