Last night there was a very special dinner in Corridonia, about 15-20 minutes away. It was the 3rd Annual Pork Dinner held by the Slow Food Group of Corridonia. For those of you unfamiliar with Slow Food, as the title implies it a sort of antithesis of fast food. More information can be found here. The restaurant is the headquarters of the Slow Food movement in this area. This is their site, including a link to the menu. The special dinner made the paper. Check out (my name appears near the end). For those of you who don't read Italian, let it suffice to say that the meal contained multiple appetizers, a pasta and a polenta, a main course with side dish and dessert with fruit.

Filiberto and Angelica picked us up and drove us. The appointed time was 9:15 p.m. There was enough food to choke a horse. We waded through course after course, with accompanying wine. There were brief explanations by the proprietor before and during courses. I was asked to stand and explain what we Americans were up to here. We sat at the same table as the Chamber of Commerce president, and he, too, was asked to say a few words, particularly about the promotion of the region's foods. It was after 1 a.m. by the time Filiberto dropped us back off at our apartment.

This morning, we were off to Civitanova, the nearest town on the Adriatic and only a 25 minute train ride away. It was an optional excursion for the students; all but one participated. We met at the train station at 9:20. When we arrived in Civitanova, a friend of Filiberto's gave us a tour of the fish market: not where you and I buy fish, but where the wholesalers/retailers buy it from the fishermen. If you've ever been to a livestock auction, it looks a lot like that. Instead of parading livestock in front of bidders, there are conveyor belts that carry crates of fish. It's a Dutch Auction, meaning a high price is set and the price drops until someone bids. That's the high bid - no need to keep going. Keeps everything moving along. We didn't get to actually see it in action because the market starts at 4 a.m. and they were done before we got there. But, some students and I will go some morning so we can shoot video.

We had some free time to wander (Saturday is street market day in Civitanova) before lunch. Filiberto arranged a special seafood meal and a restaurant (we could see the Adriatic from out table). For 10 Euros, we got a 25 Euro meal with squid, cuttle fish, mussels, clams, shrimp, pasta, gnocchi and of course wine and water. Even the students who weren't really seafood eaters appreciated it.

This was quite a food weekend. I don't think we're likely to repeat it for quite some time.