Wherefore Art Thou, Cicciarelli?

The third weekend of June, we finally made it to Noli, a small medieval town west of us, just past Savona, in order to hunt down the amazing fried anchovies—known as cicciarelli—which we heartily shoveled at Slow Fish. We didn’t find them, which was disappointing. Perhaps it was because we were looking for cicciarelli and locally they are known as lussi or lussotti (the people selling them at Slow Fish could have added that to their awning sign!). Either way, we had a lovely time.

Noli is known as one of the best-preserved medieval Ligurian villages. It still boasts its original city walls (which we walked) and which are capped by a stunning stone castle (strangely enough, we couldn’t find the entrance). Check out these truly astounding views:

We also stopped by the Romanesque church, which is touted as the loveliest Romanesque church in Liguria (it’s hard for churches to compete in this country, so they have to find their marketing niche). We ended the evening with a lovely outdoor dinner (its only flaw the droning Tom Waits background music) and strolled back through Spotorno (the neighboring town that houses the train station) as the sun set. It was in Spotorno where Trofie Wife discovered the winning flavor combination of fondente e violette gelato (dark chocolate and violet; it’s great!). Somehow, we just caught the train (if we hadn’t serendipitously bounded up the stairs when we did, we would have had to wait a whole hour for another one.) Yet another lovely way to end the weekend.

Baci e gelato,

Martello e Trofie Wife