The Workweek in Avezzano

During the week, we spent all day in the manufacturing plant, so there is not much to report there.  Each evening, however, we would go out to various restaurants.  All of the restaurants we visited were very good.   I have included a few photos taken at our dinner tables.

One thing interesting about the Italian culture:  the restaurants do not open for business in the evening until about 7:30.   If you get there at 7:30 to 8:00, you will likely be the only ones there.  Most Italians don't start arriving for dinner until 8:30 or 9:00.   Dinners are big affairs lasting the rest of the evening.  Most are 4 or 5 course meals.  There are no fast food places, except for a few of the small pizza restaurants, which also open a little earlier.

At one of the restaurants we visited, there had just been a wedding reception.  We had to wait for a table to become available, so the restaurant staff gave us all glasses of wedding champaigne.  Very nice.  Apparently it was a very nice wedding and they had a trio of singers and guitar players that were singing Italian songs, with the whole wedding party joining in.  We had a large group of about 10 or 12 people, and soon the wedding party noticed us.  The singers surrounded our table and sang songs to us.  Before it wsa over, one of our group had ended up with the brides headdress on his head and everyone was singing.   An amazing experience.

During the entire 2 weeks on our trip, I only saw 1 McDonalds and that was on the freeway in Rome.  Thats it.  No other fast food joints.   I'm not big into fast food, but there were a few times when a quick burger would have been welcome.