Al Vecchio Teatro - Ristorante Vista Mare - Ortona

We arrived late into Ortona after a mostly delightful 12 hour drive from the San Gimignano area. A great and picturesque drive on small highways and back roads.||||We had a reservation for the hotel associated with the restaurant that we walked into at about 9:00. From the street the Ristorante al Vechio Teatro is very 'unassuming' but as you walk through the door and enter the main seating area you realize you are in (in the daytime) a sunny space with a view of Ortona's harbour and the Adriatic,||||By this time I think we would have been happy with any quality of food. What we got was both excellently prepared and served. With apologies I don't recall the names of the dishes but as a starter we had a small pickled fish about the size of an anchovy. This was followed by small shrimp sautéed with bacon in a light sauce. My main was a tuna steak with mushrooms (sounded a bit different on the menu but the tuna was cooked to rare perfection) and the Boss had a sautéed breaded sea bass she was still talking about (in positive terms) the next day. Dessert was a shared limoncello dessert - more of a drink actually - that was a nice finish.||||Wine was an excellent Pinot Grigio from Abruzza. Abruzza seems known of this grape||||The young lad serving us was very attentive and professional.||||Off to bed. We were offered Room #1 across the street and up the stairs - essentially a one bedroom suite very clean and nicely decorated with both air conditioning and a 'Euro-kitchen'. (The street below was very quite through the night.)||||Breakfast the next morning was a delicious continental.||||One regret we both have is that we never got the name of the gentleman owner/manager who treated us so kindly and who introduced us to basilico (think of it as limoncello but with basil instead of lemons) and sent us packing with a bag of extra cherries for the road.||||The room and the meal were both excellent value||||What a wonderful experience.