Sausages and Bagpipes

Whoever said "the truth is stranger than fiction" has been to the butchers in Loro Piceno. It's a photogenic, walled medieval village, the other side of the valley from me and this afternoon as we wandered around we stumbled across a butchers that Heston Blumenthal claims makes the best sausages in the world. There is a photo of Heston and Peppe, the aforementioned master sausage maker, in the window. As we pressed our noses to the glass we were noticed by Peppe himself who appeared at the door (the shop was shut) and invited us in for an aperitif.
Turned out to be another of those "you couldn't make it up" moments. The aperitif was vino cotto (pudding wine) with a slice of ciauscolo (soft salami - a local speciality) as a garnish. Peppe then proceeded to play a recording of bagpipes for us to toast to. He also showed us a dinosaur he had made from meat (pictured above) and played a meat trumpet to a musical accompaniment. Absolutely genius half hour. Bizarre doesn't begin to sum it up. Worth getting on a plane for. Just head to Loro Piceno and follow the sound of the bagpipes.