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local Wednesday 4 OctOber 2023

Sole Mare Ristorante Italiano; A Traditional Family Restaurant

From friendly staff to the best Authentic Italian Cuisine

Always bringing traditional Italian meals with a hint of
Modern cuisine.

For reservations please call 586-0077 or email us at sole-
Sole Mare Restaurant is a must to visit. A traditional family restaurant within walking marearuba@gmail.com. Address: Palm Beach 23.q
distance from the high rise hotels. Sole Mare offers you a variety of Italian Cuisine,
specialized in Home Cooked Italian Food with rich fresh flavors bringing a touch of
Italy to Aruba brought to you from Italy to Palm Beach Aruba at a reasonable price.

We are open from Tuesday to Sunday from 5.30pm till 10:30 pm.

Start your meal with authentic appetizers found only in Italy served in Aruba and
the extensive menu with a selection of tender and delicious meats, poultry as well
as house specialties to choose from. From home made pasta, ravioli’s and our well
known gnocchi. A must try is the Formaggio Parmigiana. An authentic Italian dish,
pasta of choice tossed in whiskey flamed Parmigiana.

Aruban legends:

Frenchman’s Pass

(Oranjestad)—If you ever plan on many accounts of spirits roaming
taking a group tour of the island, the area of Spanish Lagoon.
you may pass through the French-
man’s Pass in Balashi. The French- There are many ghost stories sur-
man’s pass (known to locals as rounding this area, but one of the
“Franse Pas”) remains a mysteri- most famous one involves a lonely
ous—and spooky—road of which hitchhiker, trying to find a ride back
its legend is told from generation to home in the dark rainy night.
generation.
Sometime after trying to hitchhike,
The history of the Frenchman’s the man saw a car approaching,
pass—and how it got its name— appearing almost ghost-like in the
dates back to the colonization era, rain. However, since he needed a
when the French tried to colonize ride real bad, he didn’t think twice
the island, but were met with an and jumped in. But to his horror, he ing had enough, the man decided ticed the hitchhiker. He called
angry mob of indigenous settlers, noticed that the there was no driv- to jump out and he ran to Santa out to his buddy and said: “Look,
refusing to give up their land. How- er in the front. Paralyzed with fear, Cruz. there’s the idiot who sat in our car
ever, as the French were heavily he didn’t dare to get out, and the when we were pushing it!”
equipped with fire arms, the indig- car started to move. Arriving at a nearby bar, he or-
enous settlers began to retreat, dered a drink and began to tell ev- French man’s pass is one of the
and hid away in nearby caves. The When approaching a sharp turn, eryone about his experience. Ev- few sites on the island that keeps
French colonizers tried to smoke the hitch hiker braced for impact, eryone grew quiet, because they the locals on their toes. While most
them out of the caves, but the but just when he though the car realized he wasn’t some drunk ghost stories may not have real
indigenous settlers ended up in- might drive straight off the road messing around; he was telling the grounds—or some may even be
haling too much smoke and most and crash, he saw a hand ap- truth. a set up story for a joke, this pass
died in those caves. From then on, pear out the window and turn the contributes a lot to our culture of
this passage was known as French- wheel. For the next few turns, the Sometime later, two men walked folkloric story-telling.
man’s Pass, and there have been hand appeared again. After hav- into the bar and one of them no- Source: visitaruba.com