Our guide to obscure towns in the Alicante region continues with the ever popular Pinoso. Pinoso means 'Pine' and in Pine Tree in Valencian. Pinoso was settled back in the Bronze Age and like most places here became Carthaginian, Roman, Visigothic, and Moorish. But after the Reconquista, it became mostly abandoned. Agriculture came back in the late 17th and early 18th century. In the 19th century wine grapes began to grown in the area. They also started mining marble and the town became quite prosperous. Today, the area around the town is the major wine growing area in the Alicante region. It has a church that dates to the early 18th century and a unique clock tower with a HUGE manual clock that has to be wound every day.
And yes I did get all of this from the official Valencian Communidad website.
I am sure that there is some kind of regulation that requires superhighway builders to insert a minimum number of curves per kilometer, because you rarely find straight roads (say like you do in Italy). Add to this a lot of traffic, some drivers going well below the speed limit, and some drivers going well above the speed limit, and you have the equivalent being on a race course with many decisions related to speeding up, changing lanes, slowing down, all while going around curvy roads at high speed. Add not a quite great night of sleep and it was a stressful drive.
On top of this, these small towns frequently are lacking in parking facilities, add that the tourist information offices are usually in the narrow street part of old town, and the driving experience can be less than optimum.
However, as this picture shows, we were able to find a place not far from the Centro. Yay de-I Euro driver.
One of the fore mentioned pine trees in the very square we parked.
LIke many such towns there are hills and lots of steps and inclines
As we approached the center of town, I noticed all of the wrought iron railings on the balconies. And they were all different!
Another design feature we saw were these wooden curtains in front of the doors.
They were everywhere. I'd not seen these before.
The city has a nice mural painted in its Centro.
The 18th century church with the obligatory blue tile on the dome and Baroque interior
Some nice lamps
The Clock Tower which has a unique iron roof
Stop Gender Violence - a sign on a square in the Centro. The only one of its type we saw.
For the many cat lovers among my readers (and there are many), this town had a ton of cats and they all looked quite well fed and content.
A unique looking house
A photographer shooting the unique looking house
The Santa Catalina Hermitage
Photographer shooting the Hermitage
Gastronomy
This was the first time Wife has really done what I would call a 'normal' walk around since her foot injury. There were a lot of hills and steps. I was fortunate to find a restaurant on the way from the Hermitage to where the car was parked that was a gem.
Grilled Scallops Appetizer
A really nice Bacalao with a sauce of garlic and parsley
Grilled Chicken
This place was serving up a lot of rice dishes. There was this show on a TV screen.
After a while I realized it was a live shot in the kitchen showing the rice dishes being cooked the traditional way over open fire. I even saw Wife's chicken being cooked. Too bad it is so far away. I would love to come back.
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