As promised, we did have some down time during the last few days, and Pesaro was a great place to enjoy it. The beach was lovely and not yet populated, and the town itself is exceptionally pretty.
It’s a bit of a cross between Cape May in New Jersey and Santa Barbara in California. Instead of the beautiful Queen Ann Victorians on the Jersey Shore, here we have Italianate villas. (And what could make more sense, seeing as how we are in Italy?) At any rate, we had lots of house lust as we prowled the streets near the Lido. Love the art nouveau flourishes on the last house.
There’s a great sense of leisure here, and a big emphasis on bicycles, with lanes allocated on most streets. That gives it the Santa Barbara feeling. All in all, if you need an escape from the world, Pesaro should be on your list.
Don’s Food Corner
Today we tried a regional specialty that we were told not to miss — crescia. While its origins are specifically traced to Urbino, we found a version on a menu here in nearby Pesaro. It is basically a quasi-pizza dough disk that is crispy, but still flexible, folded over different choices of fillings, like prosciutto, mozzarella and rocket. Or regular ham and cheese. Or tuna and salad. There were 10 different possible filling combinations on the menu.
It has the flexibility to accommodate any filling combination and it doesn’t involve bread. It’s somewhat like a grease-less crispy burrito. A variation on a sandwich that is extremely appealing. (Plus, beer is very good with it.)