'NDUJA JUANA?: Riviera del Conero

The Park of Monte Conero and its quiet charm. Ancient coastal towns during the off-season: sign me up for a lifetime of this.

Staying in Sirolo and had a highly anticipated but casual lunch 2 km away at Loscottadito in Numana. Ridiculous. Friulian beer, all kinds of raw and cooked frutta di Adriatic Sea, calamari I can't even talk about because whoa... and the usual fish-induced visions of a better world. Beach.

Worth noting that once you're a mile inland, fish seems to vanish from menus. Proximity to the source is no joke.

Antipasto di mare del giorno, which included the red-nosed "Pinocchio" shrimp.

Tuna and swordfish carpaccio.

Tuna battuta (tartare). Flush with tomato concassé that's not detectable until you take a bite. Stealth tomatoes. And the tomatoes are freakishly good right now (?).

Chitarrini with sugo di mare bianco.

Spiedine of fresh anchovies beccafico. Stuffed and rolled around the traditional Sicilian filling of raisins and pine nuts, but so much better than the version with sardines we had while down south on the Ionian coast (fresh anchovies are not at any of the markets in Sicily at the moment, but here they are abundant).

Sardoncini a scottadito. "Scottadito" means "burned fingers" because you're meant to eat these straight from the fryer and maybe hurt yourself. They're worth it. This is also the delivery method for which the restaurant was named ("Lo/scotta/dito").

The woman running the place had asked -in very basic Italian- if we were familiar with "scarpetta" (using bread as a little slipper to wipe the last of the sauce from one's plate). We said yes and she gestured for us to do the same thing with the fish.

A ton of incredible local olive oil was mopped up with the fish.