The morning in Capestrano is beautiful... about 72 degrees and the air is feeling fresh & cool. We hear the birds and roosters. Very peaceful sitting out on the patio with a cup of coffee. 

Our day today includes a day trip to visit the nearby city of Sulmona. It’s about a 45 minute drive through the beautiful valley, just south of Capestrano. We arrive and find the covered parking garage to leave our car for a few hours. In Sulmona, we find beautiful piazzas, churches and buildings all surrounded by the mountains. It’s beautiful! We do a little shopping and walking through the city. Sulmona is famous for the production of Confetti, which in the states we call Jordan Almonds. Candied almonds that people use for  celebrations, in the states traditionally weddings. In Italy, these confetti are for all sorts of celebrations including weddings, anniversaries, births and graduations. Confetti come in many colors and here lots of different flavors. The nut can be covered with creamy goodness under the hard shell or even chocolate.  

In Sulmona, we find a gelateria to get a cool snack (and use the facilities). My granita is cold and refreshing. Sue’s gelato is yummy. Down the road is a large park filled with trees casting blessed shade. It’s much cooler walking through the park to the end where we find the cathedrale of Sulmona. Next to the cathedrale, we see a big football field (soccer here in Europe). What a nice place to see a game with the mountains looming in the distance. Back towards the center of town, we stop again for a bit of window-shopping and google “chicken sandwich near me”. Google comes through and points us in the direction up the road to a little sandwich shop where we get a basic chicken sandwich with good bread & tomatoes, olive oil and bitter arugula (which I pick off). Well nourished, we head back through town towards the piazza next to our parking garage. Again in need of facilities, I buy a can of peach tea at a bar. Back behind the front, is the WC located beyond rooms & rooms of pool tables. This place looks like it could get hopping at night!

Our car is waiting for us in the parking garage (covered from the sun!)

Driving out of Sulmona, we have a little extra time before the winery opens so we decide to stop at an ancient temple and/or sanctuary that is nearby. The lady at the tourist office pointed it out on the map. It takes less than 15 minutes to driver there... up, up, up a mountain. We find the parking place and get out to find one or both of these sites. The path through the woods goes aways and then down hill, and down some more and down some more. We eventually come to an area where the ruins looks to be the ancient temple built in the 4th century BC. At least it seems not to be a sanctuary from later. It’s cool whatever it really is. The views from up here are amazing too. Now for the hike back up the mountain. Thankfully some of it is shaded since of it being so hot today. 

Back in the steamy car, we crank up the a/c and head down the mountain to find the winery. It opens at 2:00 in the afternoon. I had called and talked to a lady earlier today. She said a visit to buy wine and do a tasting was OK but tours on on the weekend. We find the winery and park next to some enormous wine tanks. The gal inside at the winery is delightful and shares with us about the winery, vineyards and wines. We taste some white, rose and red wine (me just a little taste). Then we buy some bottles of this delicious wine. Could not resist!

Now is the time of day for some rest and respite from the sun and heat. It’s an easy about 30 minute drive back home to Capestrano where we take naps, do laundry and have some dinner. Leftover vegetable lasagne with grated cheese is delicious again. Once more we drive up to the main piazza at the top of the town. Being a Tuesday night, it’s hopping up here! There are many cars and even a little Capestrano traffic jam. The dog in the piazza is at his business of wandering around and looking half-starved. We enjoyed some delicious gelato and a lemon soda. We walked around piazza poking around before heading back down. We stopped at the market to buy some different water (our first big bottle ended up tasting gross as it was too mineral-y). Decided to pass on the water tonight. Back at our apartment we rested and got ready for some sleep as we are leaving in the morning for Rome!