[ Nov.2017 ] We stayed in a B&B called Maison Fleurie in Pescara, a seaside town in Abruzzo in the middle of Italy.

B&B’s in England are usually bigger but ordinary residential houses where the owner lives, but in Italy it seemed that hotels where staff are not always there are called B&B’s.

When we arrived, we had to call a number to get instructions on how to open the door.

There was a box next to the entrance door, and when we turned the dial as instructed, the box opened and we found a card, which was the key.

With this card, we could open the entrance door and inside door, too.

Nobody was in the house, so we went in to our room on our own.

The room was nice and stylish, but small.

Everything was designed to fit in the limited space.

This B&B occupies only one floor of a early 20th century building and there were 5 rooms.

The rest of the floors seemed ordinary flats and on the ground floor facing the street, there was a fashionable select shop.

On the next morning, we finally met a middle aged female staff in the breakfast room.

We stayed there for 4 nights, but she was the only staff we saw there.

One morning she told us that there is a town called Manoppello about 30 km away from Pescara and in a church there, there is the Veil of Veronica (a veil with the face of Christ).

She went there one time with an Australian couple who came all the way to see it and when they saw the Veil, the woman who was not a believer started shedding tears.

This time we did not have a chance to go to Manoppello but I would like to go there to see the Veil one day.

In the evening of the first day, our friends took us to a lovely seafood restaurant.

It was located on the sea and the name was Alcyone.

According to their website, an entrepreneur who has a house in Miami opened this restaurant in 2016 with the image of the beach club in the US.

My friends seemed regulars there and they were greeted warmly by the staff.

We chose the seafood salad for the starter.

On top of the cold green salad, there were boiled prawns, squids and mantis shrimps and so on as well as pieces of apple and pomegranate and other fruits, which was really good combination.

For Primo (pastas) we took two dishes to share for four of us.

One was the short pasta called Cavatelli with the sauce of Cime di Rapa vegetable with prawns and squids and the other one was the pasta called Maltagliati Integrali with clams and shrimps.

As for the main, I had sea bass with artichoke and home made crisps.

My husband had his favourite Monk Fish and our friend had flatfish.

Everything was cooked elaborately but not too much, so that they kept the good natural tastes of the ingredients.

I nearly forgot but the Mille-feuille, my dessert was excellent, too.