First let me tell you about Roberts brother. David is a man of many tales. He has lived a life less ordinary and no matter where he goes (even Abruzzo) or what he does he seems to attract drama, which then leads to more story telling.

When David came to stay his holiday in Abruzzo was no exception.

One day, shortly after his arrival he went off for a walk in the middle of the day. He took his new camera and some water and off he went. Now every self respecting Abruzzo person knows that you don’t walk in the middle of the day, in the middle of Summer and that if you are stupid enough to do that you at least wear sun block and keep your shirt on.

David walked further than he thought and kept on going. Eventually he realised he had gone further than he thought and turned back. As he did so he was on a blind bend. Along came a huge blue bus and stopped, literally on the blind bend. The bus driver obviously saw this shirtless bright red man in the middle of the countryside, in the middle of the day and took pity on him. The bus driver opened the doors and instructed David to “get in” David patted his pockets making the sign for “no money” the bus driver told him it did not matter that he had no money and that he should get in anyways. Such was his concern for this crasy Inglese. David thought about it but did not even know where the bus was going, so thought he should decline. With that the bus driver drove off. An hour later, David returned from his wanders as red as a well cooked lobster recanting tales of the Italian bus driver. He had only been with us a few hours and already he had found drama in Abruzzo!!

A few days later we went to eat at the local Abruzzo restaurant “Lu Pigione” As we arrived there were 2 Abruzzese policemen finishing their drinks at the bar, just about to leave the restaurant. We were trying to apply for residency at the time, which in some way involves the local police so David saw his opportunity to help us and offered to buy the Abruzzo policemen a drink before they left. They had already shared a bottle of wine and an after dinner liqueur but they accepted another drink. While they were enjoying this drink they were talking to David and telling him (in all seriousness) how there is a zero tolerance by the police for drink driving in Abruzzo. Hmmm how interesting thought David noticing their empty wine bottle on their table. They were just about to leave and David offered them another drink. To his surprise, they politely accepted, swiftly finished their drinks and departed in their police car. They were both wearing full uniforms and carrying guns. Ha ha, so much for the zero tolerance to drink driving, and that was from the Abruzzo police.

The Abruzzo restaurant owner Paolo was well known to us. Paolo was a man so well suited to his trade it was remarkable. He is sociable and loves to party and makes all his guests feel so welcome. On this evening there were very few others in the restaurant. After we finished our dinner we were invited to the bar for drinks with Paolo. He sat at one of the bar stools and I was invited to serve the drinks for everyone. I did so. Robert, Paolo and David sat and merrily partied the night away as I served them every drink on the shelf of the bar. They found their favourite which was liquirizia, it is a liquorice liqueur which is very good after dinner and tastes a bit like liquid berty bassets licorice allsorts in a bottle. It is amazing stuff. I got into the swing of things and did my terrible Scottish accent, which strangely I can only do when I am drunk. It was a fun night with many a giggle. We did not leave until 4 o clock in the morning and had a great time. At the end of the evening we asked Paolo how much our evening had cost and he told us nothing, we had all eaten, drank and partied in his restaurant and he wanted no payment at all. He had clearly kept no tab on what we had eaten or drunk. He clearly enjoyed our company so much he did not even consider it work. We forced 60 euros on him and left. David could not believe the hospitality and said that you would never get a British bar tender doing that. I believe he is right.