Linguine al limone is a silken melange that complements grilled summer seafood.

She had me at “limone.” That’s because lemon is perhaps the best flavor on the planet.

When Sara posted a comment longing for a recipe for chitarra al limone she ate in Sulmona, she set me on a delectable sleuthing mission.

Sara wrote:

Sulmona’s where I had maybe the best pasta dish of my life…but I can’t remember the name of the restaurant. The dish was chitarra al limone, unlike any I’ve had before or since. I’ve tried several recipes, but nothing comes close. When I asked the owner for her secret, she said “limone!” I said, I know…and what else? She smiled and said, “solo limone, signora.”

She’s going to her grave with the secret. I thought it might be that they used that panna that comes in little tiny cartons and doesn’t need refrigeration, but I tried it and that wasn’t it. The secret’s still in Sulmona…

When I asked Sara for more description, she offered this:

It was very very light and I don’t remember that it was creamy, buttery or eggy. It was as if essence of lemon and very little else coated each strand… I’ve tried just olive oil and lemon with a touch of cream but that just wasn’t the same.

Armed with these clues, I speculated that the dish had to contain cheese, probably Parmigiano-Reggiano, to counter the tartness of the lemon and help create the luxurious mouth feel that she described.  I’m thinking that Sara’s signora wasn’t being coy when she said “solo limone.” To her, cheese is probably just a “given” not worth mentioning.

I consulted the usual reference suspects: Ada Boni’s Italian Regional Cooking, Le Ricette Regionali Italiane (Solares), Artusi’s The Art of Eating Well, The Ultimate Italian Cookbook by Carla Capalbo and Marcella’s Italian Kitchen. None offers a recipe for chitarra al limone. Giuliano Bugialli’s Bugialli on Pasta has a Spaghetti al Limone recipe “from all over Italy” containing quite a bit of butter and cream, more of a lemon- flavored cream sauce than the intense lemon sauce desired by Sara. Michele Scicolone has a Linguine with Lemon recipe in 1,000 Italian Recipes but it’s made with butter. For an Abruzzese dish, I felt that olive oil would be more traditional.

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The great Roman poet Ovid was born in 43 B.C. in the outskirts of Sulmona and the town proudly claims him as its native son. A bronze statue of him commands the Piazza XX Septembre.

Ovid likely wrote his poems about love and life on wax tablets or rolls of papyrus.

These days, it’s microprocessors and LCD screens that facilitate communication in Sulmona and beyond. Through this miraculous technology, we “visited” the Albergo Stella on venere.com, just one of many accommodations middlemen. Turns out we paid $97.82 for a small but spotless room with bath, free parking, and continental breakfast in the morning.

Roberto Bono, co-owner of Albergo Stella in Sulmona.

Albergo Stella is owned by the Bono brothers, Roberto and Giuseppe. Roberto operates the hotel and the Caffé Bono. Giuseppe, the wine guy, maintains the impressive enoteca adjacent to the Caffé. These enthusiastic entrepreneurs even have plans to open another Caffé on the other side of town despite the current economic downturn which has increased unemployment in town.

Roberto noticed that we booked our room online and volunteered that, next time, we should make the reservation directly. “I’ll give you a great room rate and save the 15 percent commission I pay the booking service.”

He also asked if we were set with lodging reservations for the rest of our trip. We explained that we were going to wing it and re-create the good old days when we first met and fell in love in Florence and traveled all over Europe by the seat of our pants.

“Just in case,” he said, “remember www.booking.com. It has a great selection of European hotels and B & B establishments.”

We thanked Roberto but secretly thought to ourselves, “We don’t need that. Now that we’re back in Italy, our old radar will kick in.” Less than 48 hours later, we were humbled into logging onto booking.com. The night after we left the Stella, we had to settle for a Best Western in the seaside resort of Barletta. Arriving as sun set, and dealing with traffic from hell, our dreams of winging it took flight for the night.

Lining the main streets of Sulmona are shop after shop selling confetti, the confectionary for which the town is famous. It sounds simple: start with almonds, pistachios or hazelnuts and coat them with multiple layers of molten sugar cane syrup.

This dessert artistry has been evolving since Roman times when almonds were coated with honey. The results are magnificent. They are edible mosaics, work so detailed, artistic and well-executed that they fool your eye. Of course these are real flowers . . . no, they are confetti.

Confetti Pelino, which dates form 1783, operates a museum of the craft at their factory at Via Stazione Introdacqua 53-55.

Full disclosure: I’m a honey consumer, a big-time honey consumer. I make a five-pound jug disappear every 6 to 9 months and I can find legitimate ways to enjoy honey three meals a day. I’m also intrigued about flavored honeys. The only one I ever met that I didn’t like was a buckwheat honey. I ended up diluting that bad boy with clover honey.

I was thrilled to see honey on the bar counters in Abruzzo . . . and even more excited to see the locals using it to sweeten their cappuccini and espressi. As we walked through Sulmona on market day we spotted the Non Solo Miele (Not Just Honey) shop. We popped in and were invited to sample some of the floral varieties, including a complex, slightly bitter, chestnut honey which the proprietor informed us was rich in iron.

I’ve since learned that Abruzzo has been a center of honey production since ancient times. Today a wide variety of blended and monofloral honeys are created by the people and bees in the region.  To read more about Abruzzese honeys, visit Discover Abruzzo.

The market in Sulmona is a feast for the senses.

You enter Piazza Garibaldi by stepping down stone steps and passing through a series of stone arches. From street level you see the tops of the arches and beyond them, in the distance, snow-capped Apennine peaks. The vast National Park of Abruzzo, a magnet for nature lovers, surrounds the city.

Down the steps, through the arches, you enter a different world. There are about 200 vendors, under a crazy quilt of dazzling canopy colors, selling everything from DVDs to gym shoes, house wares to flowers, clothing to produce. You want a New York Yankee cap? Someone has a deal for you.

We join the other market-goers . . . walking, talking, smiling, enjoying the sun, aromas, excitement and vendor engagement of market day in Sulmona.

Italian vendors reach out to their customers. They charm them, cajole them, spin a playful web of banter and soon you find yourself negotiating for something that you suddenly feel compelled to buy.

My favorite vendor is the fish lady. She has it going on in a brightly painted truck . . . and she attracts a constant stream of customers. She winks, sings, laughs and puts on a great show. Hell, I almost buy a fish.

Read more about Market Day in Sulmona