Fawlty Towers

Shortly after we returned to our hotel last night, members of the family that own the hotel got into a massive fight about something.  There was lots of heated words and yelling happening.  Of course, we understood none of it, it all being in Italian.  It was passionate enough, I'm sure, to make all guests within earshot stop and concentrate on the sounds of the fight.  Certainly, our room is adjacent to the main room in which the family sits, and where the argument took place.  As I write this, I recall that during the fight we heard the sound of someone's face being struck.  There was also a very clear sound of glass being broken.

I thought of many good reasons not to get involved.  I note we did not hear the sounds of female voices during the dispute, and no child was involved.  We became convinced that the approximately 20 year old son had upset his father somehow.  I wasn't really surprised about this because I'd already decided the boy had an attitude problem.  

The fight in the hotel was an exciting culmination to an otherwise very pleasant evening.  Jean and I had earlier strolled the short distance to the funicular and turned right into the little square.  A couple of restaurants face the square with many an outside table filling the square and packed with diners.  At first glance, the square looks like the end of the road, but it's just the beginning.  During the evening, we spent ages following the very narrow but quaint lanes that extend from the square to their ends.  Initially, we ended up all the way down to the Gardens of Augustus, where we saw, just off the coast, two peaks rising out of the sea.  They looked just like the Twelve Apostles off the Great Ocean Road in Australia, so I called them the 'Two Apostles'.

Exploring the lanes, we studied restaurant menu after restaurant menu, and eventually ended up back at the square again.  Now, ascending the steps to the church here, we realised there was yet another lane to be explored here.  A few restaurants were closed, maybe because it was Sunday.  Back down to the square, we followed a final lane, and at length, discovered a restaurant that was favourable.  We ate well last night.  Jean had seafood spaghetti with mussels, clams, baby octopus, calamari and prawns.  I had white fish with almonds marinated in lemons and oranges.  To go with it, we had a tomato salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  I'd get just a little bit of everything on my fork.  The flavours were amazing.  We both had a Nastro Azzuro beer each (Italian) to go with it.  It all came to 56 euros, but worth it.  

The little square

The Two Apostles

One of the lanes