Ascoli has a few food specialties:

Ascolana – Ascolan olives stuffed with meat and then lightly battered and fried. They are way better than they sound.

Aribitta – grilled lamb on a stick

Rosso Piceno – made from Multipulciano grapes. Fact: The town of Multipulciano in Tuscany, which is famous for it’s Vin Noblie, is actually made from Sangiovese grapes.

Talk about staying open to change – Larry is unrecognizable by his eating habits. He is not just eating, but ordering vegetables. I had to point out to him after the first three days that, other than the salumi we purchased in the Saturday market, he had not eaten any meat – only pasta and vegetables. He said he’s eaten more olives in the last two weeks than in his whole life. We went to a fish (pesce) only restaurant one night and he not only ate the shrimp (gamberetti) but the steamed clams (vongole) in the shell and attacked the small lobsters (langostine) and then deboned his own dover sole entree. His mother, who wouldn’t touch anything from the sea, would have been horrified. But the new Larry is fun!