“Terracina has about 40,000 people, a sandy beach that goes on for at least 10km, and a rock promontory that overlooks the town. In fact, apart from having the remains of a 3rd century BC temple to Jupiter it could almost be the Mount (Mt. Maunganui, just down the coast from where we lived in the Bay of Plenty, for you non-NZ readers).
Maurizio was wonderfully proud of Terracina, although he confided that it was a bit too low-key compared to Rome. And he needed to stay in the big city since that’s where his daughter and her mother lived.
He instead visits once or twice a month, always on Sundays, to give a kiss to his momma, and have a meal at Dal Pescatore (literally “From the Fishermen”). Because what we hadn’t realised was that Maurizio had grown up in a restaurant. But not just any restaurant…Terracina’s best seafood establishment, complete with its own small fleet of boats.”