What do you call a 6" Pizza?

Well, it's been a week since we arrived in Italy and our days are pretty much like they were in Philadelphia, except we're in Italy. We wake up, have coffee and read the depressing news of the world, get dressed, do some things, read some books, have lunch and dinner, watch a movie and go to bed. The point is, we came here to live our lives, not be tourists. We do a lot more exploring: walking and riding bikes, but probably the main difference is that we shop each day for that day's groceries. In the morning we plan our evening meal and then head to the market (with our reusable ChicoBags) to roam the aisles with the other retirees, picking up our supplies.

John has cooked many nights attempting to make traditional Abruzzo dishes. One night he made Pescarese baked fish with lemon, caper mash, potatoes, and fava beans (they actually have fava beans in the frozen food aisle).

Another night he made pasta aglio e olio (pasta with garlic and oil). Ina Garten has a good recipe here. He made the dish with a pasta called Taglierini that we discovered in the market.

Dinners have been good, but our lunches...so far we've had porchetta sandwiches purchased from a guy at a stand at the local Wednesday outdoor farmers market and homemade roasted red peppers (yes, we made them) on crusty Italian bread from the bakery, among other lunch specialties.

However, yesterday was special. We rode our bikes to a restaurant along the promenade called Trieste, which was recommended by our Airbnb host. Trieste, which has been around since 1958 makes mini pizzas called "Pizzette." Each pizzetta is 6" of soft oven cooked dough with a multitude of toppings. They make upwards of 21 different type of pizzetta, from Margherita, Rosa Alici, which is tomatoes, mozzarella, anchovies, olives, capers and basil to one called Bianca Mozzarella, just mozz and extra virgin olive oil.

The restaurant is actually a 'fast food' pizza joint where you walk up, pick your pizzette from along a line, they put your pizzette on a plastic tray (like Mickey D's), you order a drink (soda, wine, or beer), pay and find a table. Lucky for us there were tables outside near the beach looking at the Adriatic.

Our lunch: Margherita, Mushroom, Olive and Rosemary, and a Zucchini and tomato

But, what really made us laugh was that the outside looked almost exactly like a McDonalds with plastic play-land and kids all over the place. There was a birthday party going on with over 20 kids at a long table, talking and eating and being kids. Parents and grandparents sat at a different table and enjoyed any pizzette that the kids didn't finish.

It kind of looked like home, only with 6" Pizzettes and boisterous Italians. Ok, maybe a little like South Philly!