A long drive through a beautiful country

Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Scanno, Abruzzo, Italy
Today we said goodbye to Puglia and the Borgo Egnazia. Before we left though, we had to have one more breakfast. Today ended with everyone stocking up on caffein for the long drive (I even had a "babyccino".  

The Drive from Puglia to Florence is about an 8 hour drive, and is very similar to driving north from Orange county to San Fransisco . In Italy it was olive groves, then the Italian mountains, and finally the vineyards of Tuscany, where as in California you have the farms of the central valley, the Mountains around Yosemite, and finally the vineyards of Nappa Valley.

The first leg of the drive from Puglia to Scanno was pretty uneventful. Dad tried to keep us going around 160 the whole time, and I took a nap for most of it. It was all smooth sailing until we turned off the autostrada toward Scanno. The road was barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass with a giant cliff on one side; the steep cliffs did make for some beautiful views though. Our first views of Scanno were of "lago di Scanno"; a little alpine lake surrounded by tall trees. Dad was very surprised by how green Scanno was. 

Having survived the road in we parked and after a short walk through town arrived at Vecchio Mulina, a trattoria run by the Tarullo family. Thanks to Nonna's Ability to speak Italian we were able to relay that I was a Tarullo from California . It turns out that Tarullo is a very common name in Scanno. In fact before leaving the restaurant we had met 3 Tarullo's and they weren't even all related. One of the Tarullo's, Philipo Tarullo had a glass of wine with us and told us all about the Tarullos. We weren't able to nail down anyone directly related to us, but it was cool hearing about the Tarullos of Scanno.  

Lunch was huge, we started with a plate of salumi, tomatoes and redicchio (which we thought was the appetizers we ordered). Then came the appetizer, a giant platter of meat and another of cheeses from the region. The rest of the meal was made up of 4 pasta dishes: 1) a raviolo, 2) a gnocchi with broccoli, 3) a spaghetti like pasta with lamb, and 4) a fettuccini with veal. We also of course had a carafe of the house wine (Dad even let me try some). 

After the meal they brought out a homemade liqueur that is typical in the region. It was very strong and had a sort of woodsy flavor to it; only dad drank it, everyone else had some sort of "cafe" . when lunch was finished we thanked the Tarullos for their hospitality and walked around town for a bit.  

While exploring the town, we found a little church, where Dad went in and lit a candle and said a prayer for Aunt Lorraine, and all of his relatives that have passed. Babbo lit a candle, I'm assuming for his friend Angel who had passed away a few days prior, and Nonna and Mom lit a few candles as well.  

All in all we were only in Scanno for a few hours, but it strangely began to feel very much like home in that short period of time.  

Babbo had to drive out of town do to the carafe of wine and the shot of liqueur that Dad had. The rest of the drive went by fairly quickly, except for maybe those joining me in the back seat (it was a bit cramped).  

Things got interesting once we arrived in Florence, I'm not sure if it was all the driving, too long between meals or the traffic in Florence but Dad lost it (I'll leave it at that).  

 After some hunting we found the flat we rented for the week and were greeted by Giulio the manager of the flat. He and his friend brought our bags up, which was good because it was 4 flights, our bags were heavy, and as previously mentioned our party was pretty wiped out. 

Things quickly turned around after we left the flat to go exploring Florence and get some dinner. We stopped at a little pizzaria right off the Piazza Santa Maria Novela. It wasn't the best meal of the trip, but it got the job done as we were all hungry and in need of a glass of wine. Once we had our fill we walked back to the flat, unpacked a bit, and called it a night.  

It was a long drive, but we got to see parts of Italy we would never have seen otherwise, and we got to see Scanno, which was the highlight of the trip so far for Dad. Tomorrow we go exploring Florence, I can't wait to see the city that Mom called home for a semester while at Pepperdine.  
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Comments

Kathy
2017-05-25

Having so much fun reading your posts. Is Scanno where his family originated or was that coincidence? Have a great time in Florence!

Grandma Patty
2017-05-25

PopPop Tarullo is going to be so thrilled that you visited and enjoyed Scanno--the town where his Grandpa Tarullo was born. You sure had a long drive to get there.

2025-02-12

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