Hello

08/31/2009 - 15:18

Hi everyone! I have just returned from a five week stay with my family in our little house near Montefalcone. I have wanted to join the forum for a while and now here I am. It is most enjoyable and interesting reading your posts. I have so much to learn!We spend half of our time at the beach in the summer. The rest of the time we stay home and do DIY jobs and make trips around our local area. We are frequent visitors to Costorama! Out of the main season I love to visit different villages and towns and explore the counryside. In winter we just make fires and eat out at the local trattoria.Our neighbours are very friendly and helpful, we manage to talk a bit and make ourselves understood and always have a laugh but I long to speak more fluently and communicate effectively. They like to watch my husband at work and always offer tips and help. I am looking forward to following your posts and hopefully I will be able to contribute something!Ciao for nowChris

Topic

Introductions

Location

Marche

Comment

Hi Chris, Welcome to the forum. We are not very far away - near Comunanza and we have a few members here who live in Montefalcone. We love the Chestnut Festa in Montefalcone and the following week in Smirillo. Looking forward to it coming round this year. Which is your favourite beach? - we like Pedaso as it is not quite as 'posh' as some of the other resorts! Also they have been spending quite a bit doing it up and there are now some lovely restaurants/ beach bars. Looking forward to your posts. Sarah and Mark

hi Sarah/MarkI`ve heard a lot about the various chestnut festas, could you fill us in a bit more? For example, do they have one in every village? They seem to be very popular.our favourite beach is Porto san Giorgio because of the sand, but we also like to people watch and you can do a lot of that there, but I also like Pedaso and I cant wait to get up to Sassotteto to ski. Have you been?John

Hi JohnThe chestnut festival in Montefalcone - or to give it it's full title "Sapore d'Autonno" is huge. Thousands arrive for it and the village is packed out for two whole days.Others are more local affairs. They nearly all have some sort of food theme (sardines, trout, funghi, tartufi etc), though that's merely a hook to hang the excuse for a good knees-up!If you're coming from abroad it can be difficult to get to hear about them in advance - posters go up in the locality and that's it. Others may be able to suggest ways to find out more.However the Montefalcone one is always the second weekend in October. Apart from all the many stalls selling local produce and knick-knacks, there is an English tea room run by the proprietors of Il Granaio http://www.il-granaio.com/navigationin.htmlNot necessarily what you come to Italy for, though the cross-cultural implications are entertaining

Thanks to all for your friendly welcome to the forum.In the main season with family, it's a hands down to Grottamare beach, tried and tested it is clean shallow and childfriendly . The first bar/concessione that we fell upon has been our favourite since we first visited in April 2007. It is called Il Tenente ,the family now welcome us every year and we feel at ease and at home. We love the seafood! Cupra marritima is another favourite. I used to enjoy the shells on Pedaso beach. The larger resorts are a bit overfacing and BUSY, I always feel a bit lost!I would LOVE to visit some of the beaches off the conero peninsula, I know there is one that you have to reach by boat.Sirolo is beautiful, I also had a little visit to Portonovo in April with my mum. We shared a glass of wine at the sushi place there on the beach. It would have been heaven except for two little unappreciative boys who moaned about lack of ice cream! Oh well another time!Ciao!

Hi Chris, welcome to the community and the ever growing Marche fan-club!A

Hi Chris and a warm welcome to our Community.

Hi Chris, thanks for joining the community and for such a rich introduction! It expresses your love for Italy, it sounds like you had a good time during your stay. Thanks for sharing this.If you'd like to share with us some shots from your stay, here's the link: New Photo galleryA presto, Valentina

Hello Chris and welcome to the forum. I am a newcomer myself but I have been reading around for several years. It is a very useful community and I hope you are able to add to it since you seem to really enjoy your place in Italy.

Just another comment to say nice to hear from you. I've been living in Carassai for nearly 3 months now - next time you're over maybe all those who have answered could meet up/ Or maybe all respondents could meet up before that?

Was the sushi place the little shack that serves sardines and anchovies in their tins? We tried when we were there and were a tad underwhelmed... the girl took ages to take our order, then the gully gulper truck came up to pump out the drains so we made a quick exit!There is another place further down the beach which is bigger which sells excellent fish, and another place the other side of the peninsular which is probably the place you should visit by boat, we climbed down the path, very high and long and nearly vertical... they do fabulous barbecued fish and seafood... however we were a bit aware that we had to climb up the path afterwards. Not recommended unless you are a lot fitter than we were/are.We had a lovely few days staying at the Napoleon Fort hotel, we could use their sister hotel's pool, and there was another hotel on the hill with the most fabulous views over the bay. Absolutely loved it, why can't we have our Ancona flights back!!