After a fabulous breakfast,(more delicious food) we assembled in front of The Baron’s Estate for our day’s tour.

Our first stop was a beautifully restored 18th century olive oil press, where we saw how olive oil was pressed 150 years ago. Very impressive.

Francesca educated us on the finer points of olive oil tasting.

We were all focused on the presentation in our own way.

After the presentation, Francesca treated us to a typical lunch the workers would have eaten while harvesting olives. And for dessert we had orange slices with olive oil, salt, and mint. This was not an obvious combination but it tasted fabulous.

Oh, and of course we had wine…

After lunch, Luca and Pepe entertained us with a demonstration of how their grandma would test to see if they had been cursed with the evil eye.

You put water in a plate and then add a drop of olive oil.

We all thought that the drop of olive oil would float on the water, and it usually does. But not always. Luca added three drops of olive oil. As long as at least two drops floated, everyone in the room was okay. But if two drops disappeared, there was trouble, and if all three disappeared, we had serious problems.

Luca explained that we were okay because two of the three floated.

Luca told us how his grandma would cure you if you did have the evil eye curse. It involved making the sign of the cross on your forehead with olive oil, special prayers, open windows and grandma casting the spell back at the source. He also said that in addition to removing curses, grandmas could also cast curses when required. The worst curse was “may you defecate nails”. You don’t want to annoy an Italian grandma.

After our demonstrations of the paranormal, the group posed for a group photo with Francesca.

As we were talking, a murder of crows flew by.

One of the things we enjoy seeing on our trips is street art. This caught our eye…

Our next stop was the hilltop village of Pretoro. This is a the view of the village, which was originally a lookout tower for the surrounding villages all the way down to Pescara to watch for raiders.

We drove up near the top of the city and then assembled for a guided walk around the village. Luca and Pepe grew up in a village less than ten kilometers from here, so we were treated to a ton of local character about the village.

One of the more interesting tidbits was that the streets are so steep that the locals claim that walking these streets will pay for all of your sins in advance. Hence the street(s) are named “purgatory”. This is the second of five purgatory streets in the city.

Here is a view of the street. Looks like something out of an Escher drawing.

Here is an example of one of the medieval buildings in the town.

Once we got back to The Baron’s Estate, Luca and Pepe relaxed with a glass of wine after driving the vans on those narrow winding streets.

After our return we were treated to a pasta making demonstration.

Here is an example of the impressive pasta creations in the demonstration.

Tomorrow is another tour.