Cycling and Trabocchi and Cucina, Oh My!

 

This weekend, CCI students braved the heat on Saturday for a breezy bike ride on the newly constructed “pista” along the Adriatic.

The bike path follows the old rail line and offers the perfect opportunity to view a unique feature of this particular piece of coastline, trabocchi.

Trabocchi are complex wooden structures that date back to the 1700s and were designed to allow fishermen to catch fish even in rough seas. This was accomplished by suspending a large net from the antennae of the trabocco. The fishermen would lower the antennae to drop the empty net into the water. When the timing was right, they would raise the net filled with their catch.

These days, the trabocchi are no longer used for fishing, but have been restored because of their historical importance. Some have even been converted into restaurants. We visited one trabocco on our bike ride where the owner spoke to us about the history of the coast and these amazing fishing machines. Thank you Francesco for translating!

The adventure journey continued on Monday when we brought students to ReD Academy, a professional cooking school in Lanciano. There, Chef Pelusi demonstrated how to make pallotte cacio e ovo, which are fried cheese balls made with parmigiano and pecorino cheese, bread crumbs, and egg, in a simple tomato sauce. Students were then given an opportunity to taste them once finished. Buono!