Yet another warm and sunny day.
The wedding is scheduled for later afternoon, so we head into Ascoli Piceno. It's where Romina went to high school and is inland about 30 km. We've all been there before, but it's close by and is an execellent place to walk around, but isn't a huge tourist destination. We have a quick stop at a bar for water, coffee, and impressively tasty cornetti (Italian croissants)...the most unassuming looking place, with good food....and then start walking. A Saturday in Spring, it becomes quickly apparent, is wedding day. Each church we walk by has preperations going on. While walking through one, we hear the musicians rehearsing...pretty nice acoustics... . It's a pretty standard walk around town...back streets, through the street market, into the main piazza...we track down a store for me to buy a card for Romina and Thomas, mom buys some lace (local specialty). And we happen to walk by the local porchetta truck on the edge of the market. My parents have actually been to this guy before and it is memorable.
This is the best sandwich so far. The meat is still warm and is juicy and delicious. This is becoming a sideline...just to have porchetta each day, it's like trying out the local BBQ stand in each town in N. Carolina.

But we have to go. We need to get back to the hotel to change clothes and head out to the church. It's good we had the porchetta, because we thought we could stop on the way back to grab a little lunch.
Unfortunately, our restaurant choice, in a small town up in the hills, is open but doesn't start serving until after 1 PM. So we start driving.
We have seen signs for a local town called Controguerra. Seems aptly named. We have seen lots of antiwar signs and flags (the Italian peace flag is everywhere...a rainbow striped flag with the word PACE in the middle), but haven't felt any anti-American feeling, in fact it's been the opposite. The drive to Controguerra is pretty spectacular, a mountain ridge road with a steep drop to an enormous valley on one side and a rolling mountain plain on the other.
Controguerra isn't in any guide books. There's a reason. It's a pristine little town with nothing to see and nowhere to eat. A sanwich in the bar near the hotel is lunch. Porchetta has saved the day again.

The church is in Offida, a hill town about 15 minutes away, with a great medieval centro. We are worried about being on time, but as we get ready to leave, we find that the groom and his family haven't left the hotel yet either. So we head off together.

Romina has known that she would get married in this church for a long time....It's 1100 years old and built on the cusp of a promontory several hundred steep feet up. The view driving in is incredible. The church itself is pretty amazing. It's no longer active, except for festivals and weddings. The ceremony takes place in the basement, in the crypt with the bones of the monks who used to care for the church on display. It has a low ceiling and lots of arches and columns and is very cool. But (my apologies to Romina and Thomas), it's a little hard to see and hear the ceremony. Everyone (150 people) they invited showed up (which is good), and so the crypt is very crowded (which is a little less good), but it doesn't take away from the fun. The wedding is in English and Italian with two priests, one who speaks English. Romina's sister and cousin read as does Thomas's sister (his parents and his siblings and spouses, and several of his friends have made the trip from the US, and all seem to be enjoying themselves in Italy...the brothers went shopping and bought new Italian suits and really snappy shoes when they arrived).
At the end of the wedding, rice is thrown and doves are released. It's pretty great. There is a pause before the reception. So we head to the Enoteca in town for a drink. A former co-worker of Romina's, Desiree and her boyfriend Lio (who we had hit it off with at the pizza place the night before) meet us there and we enjoy a bottle of wine and some really great Saltines. Then it's back to the hotel and the reception.

Things start at about 7:30 PM with a buffet of appetizers...This could have been dinner by itself. fresh proscuitto sliced at the table, mozzorella, parmigiano, oysters on the half shell, polenta, olive alla ascoliana, fruit, and more...We chat and take pictures, and mill about in front of the villa as the sun sets.

Then we head inside as the dinner begins.

Let me state first that I failed miserably in my job as eater. There was so much food. and it was so good. and it kept coming. and there was wine. and so I couldn't eat, let alone taste, everything.

The menu:

Antipasti:
Zuppa di Ceci, patate, e funghi (chickpea, potato, and mushroom soup).
always a personal favorite, this yellow chunky soup is served with croutons and a drizzle of olive oil. mmmmm
Bresaola noci grana e rucola (sliced cured beef with nuts, chesse, and
arucola) I had to avoid the nuts, but I'm all about cured meats. This was delicious
Frataglie strapazzate (hard to define...chopped mushrooms, egg, and veal liver, in what, regrettably only later, I learned was a parmigiano crisp)
This is a traditional wedding dish, unfortunately, I'm not a huge liver
fan (pate and foie gras excepted) and didn't realize about the parmigiano crisp until the next morning. Not a big hit, but huge props for tradition...

So that was the first course. This was not a tasting menu, each of these was a full sized plate. We hadn't even hit the pasta yet...

I Primi
Gnocchetti pomodorini e funghi (potato gnocchi with mushrooms and
tomatoes) This was great. The gnocchi were so lite and puffy, and I've never had gnocchi with a red sauce before.
Fazzlettini ricotta e spinachi (things start to get a little hard to remember here...I think this was an eggy crepe with ricotta and spinach)
I had never had this before and loved it. It was like a cross between
pasta, crepes and cheese souffle.
Campofilone al ragu ( a spaghetti like pasta with meat sauce). I went for a walk when this was served. I could only have a single bite when I returned, but the pasta wsa delicious.

at this point it was about 10 or 10:30 and I was really, really full.
and a little drunk. and was starting to fade even though we were only three hours into dinner.

I secondi
Brasat di vitello con cicoria (thinly sliced veal with sauteed chicory). I had a small amount of this and ate some of the greens, but I'm not qualified to describe how this was. I have no idea.

Gli Arrosti
Maialino, Agnello, Quaglietta (Grilled pork chops, lamb, and quail) I went for another walk and couldn't even look at this course.
Tris de verdure: melanzone, zucchine, e patate (grilled vegetable: eggplant, zucchini, and potatoes) Rumor has it the potatoes were excellent. i couldn't say.

It was now closing on 11:30 or so. when I got back from outside dessert had started.

Torta Nuziale (wedding cake) vanilla and chocolate and really tasty. Buffet di dolci (sweets buffet) Outrageous. Napoleons, a strawberry cake, profiteroles, another good cake I can't identify anymore, I think there was something like a pudding or a tiramisu. There was whipped cream. Cascata di fruitta (waterfall of fruit) a five foot tall display of fresh fruit. Strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, etc. DId I mention whipped cream

Around 1:30 when a good number of guest had departed we hit the bar.
Grappa, limoncello, vin santo.
I went to bed around 2:30 AM
I was so tired and so full and so happy. It was great, Romina and Thomas even seemed to have a good time. I know I did. At my table were Romina's cousins, Loredana and Rosella, who I already knew, some old friends of Thomas from the states and their wives, and Sabina's (Romina's
sister) husband's brothers Marco and Thomas. We all ate too much and drank too much and had a damn good time. There was a live band playing jazz standards (they were really good, and the singer was impressive...he had all the phrasings and rhythms down) alternating with a guy with a keyboard singing mostly American songs (Willie Nelson, Elton John, Simon and garfunkel, etc.). There was a small amount of dancing and no toasts, but mostly people ate and mingled. This time I did not nap.

It was a hell of a day.