Pesaro, Il Pignocco, and Olives

Saturday Nov. 2
Yup, cranking out the blogs now! Trying to catch up so I can have them all done before we begin our long trek home. Blogging has been a great tool to keep all of our memories straight. When we can't remember what we saw where, we refer to the blog. It's a labor of love-mostly due to slow wifi-but the Perugina chocolate really helps!
Great decision to spend the weekend on the Adriatic coast. We found a great place to stay at Il Pignocco, in the hills overlooking Pesaro and the sea. Il Pignocco (the pine) is an old estate-turned hotel. They have rooms in the main house, and another building with a few apartments. We have a lovely ground floor apartment.

Il Pignocco estate

View from our kitchen

Table outside our apartment

Che bella!

This one does not classify as agriturismo, but it is family run and they have about 90 olive trees. When we asked about the age of the trees, they said they didn't know, but likely over 100 years. Lucky for us, it is harvest time, and we were happy to help. First they spread nets under a few trees, and then rake the olives off the branches. We helped with the hand rakes, and they also have a power-raker that can really shake the branches. Then we roll the nets to form a pile of olives and pick out the branches. They use a leaf blower to blow out more of the leaves. It is an extremely labor intensive process, but a fun experience for us!

Raking the trees

Sorting

It's a family affair

The Adriatic Sea

That afternoon we drove down to the beach. Lovely beach, but sadly, the cement-box architecture of the Pesaro beach front hotels is depressing and uninviting. Still, I'm sure they pack 'em in during the summer months.

Lovely beach vacant in the off-season

Ugly hotel row of Pesaro

We also drove south to checkout the seaside town of Senigallia (I read about this town in one of my Italian lessons and just had to peek). The hotel row there was a bit more appealing, but we were happy to return to our estate in the hills and our view.