LORETO (part VI): It could have been the greatest mistake ever made

THEY CALL THEM ricciarelli cookies and they are the tastiest cookies in the world.

Really.

The ones I ate were at the Pirri Rolando Pasticceria in Loreto. The soft, maleable, feather-light cookies tasted like amaretto and sugar and they melted in my mouth.

I started with five cookies and an espresso but I had to have more.

I approached the woman at the counter and asked, "Un quatro kilo, per favore?"

She laughed for a second and then said in Italian, "Do you want 400 or 500 cookies, because that is how many four kilo's will get you. You want a 'quarto kilo,' no?"

"Oh," I replied with a smile. I had meant a quarter kilo. "Si."

Then I watched her gently toss 33 cookies into a paper bag.

I should have stuck with the four kilo's.

- G. Miller