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Italy Puglia 2023Italy Puglia 2023
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A 11-day adventure by Jcrieff Read more
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  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 4

    Ciao, Lecce

    March 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F

    It started raining as I was on the train to Lecce. By the time I arrived it was raining, but not too hard. Since there was a line for taxis, I put on my raincoat, pulled out my umbrella, and started to walk.

    This place is beautiful. There are baroque churches and Roman ruins all mixed together. The "hotel" is like the one where I stayed in Rome. It is a multi use building with a B&B. The room is small but fine. It is on the "first" floor, so a lot of stairs until you get there. Luckily, there was an elevator!

    I took a long nap and then headed out to explore. It was raining, but not hard. I ended up at a café and stopped for.an espresso. As I was leaving I saw.a woman from the restaurant in Brindisi. She recognized me too, and we exchanged numbers. She's from Belgium and also traveling alone. We may have dinner one night.

    I stopped for a spritz before dinner at Bob's.    Read more

  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 4

    Dinner at Bob's

    March 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 46 °F

    It was a 15-minute walk to the house where I was having dinner. Bob met me around the door and brought me upstairs. The other guests were his wife Sondra and their friends Rita and Massimo. Bob speaks English, but only a little better than my Italian. The rest only Italian.

    It was a fun evening. They are all about my age. We started with crostini with tomatoes and olives, burrata, sheep milk ricotta, grilled zucchini, and stewed peppers. For the main course, we had pasta with scampi in a tomato sauce and some oil packed peppers on the side. The wine was rosè. Finally, for dessert, there were pastries and an amaro.

    We spoke mostly in Italian, which was great. They helped me a lot. Bob drove me back to the old town, as close as he could get. It was after 12 and I was tired!    Read more

  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 5

    Ladies day

    March 5, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 55 °F

    I slept in this morning. After the late night before I needed it! Breakfast at this B&B is down the street at a Pasticeria. I had a cappuccino and a delicious cornetto filled with Nutella.

    I messaged Marles, from Bruges, and said that I couldn't do dinner tonight, but I was free for lunch today or dinner tomorrow. We decided on lunch today. It was raining, and I was tired, so I took a nap until noon. I had actually planned a rest day today, and that is what I did!

    I chose a restaurant that I had seen on Yelp, back when I was planning. We met there. She was a little late because she was at a wine bar. My kind of friend! She asked if she could invite another woman she met last night. We ended up having to swap tables, which meant a new building. Christina is from the States but lives in Ferrara. We ordered a bottle of wine and split a burrata and capacola antipasto. For lunch, I had a taartar type dish. We chatted for a long time and realized that it was almost 4pm. The restaurant had been closed for an hour already.

    Christina had seen an Urban Forest she wanted to visit, so we decided to walk there. It was a fairly long walk, and when we got there, it was closed. It looked cool--a tree filled area in the middle of a urban area. But we walked back and stopped at a mural that was along a bike path.

    It was getting close to the time for my pasta class, so I had to leave them. They were going to see a gospel choir in one of the churches, but we said we'd try to meet up later.

    Off to learn how to make orrecchiette!    Read more

  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 5

    Pasta class

    March 5, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 52 °F

    The class was in a small wine bar, and I was the only student. I was really hoping for more people. The woman who was to be my teacher had everything ready to go, and all I had to do was wash my hands, and we were off.

    I had told her that I was trying to learn Italian, so she spoke in Italian the whole time. First thing, we wet a paper towel under the cutting board to keep it from moving around. Then we scooped 4 spoons of flour into a bowl and made a hole in the center. We added water to the center and "four fingers" of salt. Then we mixed it all up with our fingers, correcting the flour and water until the texture was right. Next was kneading it for about 5 minutes, then making ropes. The ropes were cut into small sections, then the real work started! You have to drag the knife across the dough, then turn it inside out with your thumb. Not easy. At all. I maybe had one good one. After that, it has to rest, to dry out a bit before cooking.

    The next part was a food and wine tasting. A different person led that. When he started to speak to me in English, the woman yelled at him to speak Italian. 😀. First was a white wine with a selection of cheeses. Cacio cavallo, and two goat/sheep milk cheeses. Then a rosatto with bruschetta. Next, a red from the same grape as the rosè, with taralli topped with bitter greens. Finally a primitivo red with my orecchiette! I have a feeling that they mixed some of the ones that the teacher made in with mine... I was entertained by a street cat, Arancione, who came in the restaurant. I love how they take care of the animals here.

    The ladies messaged me to let them know that they were out for drinks and I should join them. So I thanked them and headed out.    Read more

  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 6

    Team One More Last Drink

    March 6, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 46 °F

    I met Marles and Christina at Gusto Libermma. They were having small plates of food, but I was stuffed from the pasta class. I ordered a drink and heard about their night. They loved the gospel choir--it sounded wonderful. We talked and talked. I found out that Marles was traveling because she just found out that her cancer came back and had metastasized on her lung and lymphnodes. She quit her job as an accountant and has been traveling around Italy for 2 weeks already. She's been to Naples, Pompeii, Bari, Monopoli, and of course Brindisi and Lecce. She has a partner and a daughter at home in Bruges. Not sure what Christina's situation is. She's got 3 young kids and an ex-husband at home
    He works for NATO, so my guess is that she's stuck here and needed to get away. She seems very sad.

    Anyway, we spent a lot of time talking about food we ate as kids--peanut butter and jelly, all the Hostess products, and Kraft Mac n Cheese. Marles did not try McDonald's until she was an adult. Next thing we know, the place is empty. Yes, we closed down another establishment.

    They wanted to go back to the cocktail bar they went to last night--Quanto Basta. We ordered drinks and continued the conversation. It's amazing what people who met less than 24 hours ago will talk about after hanging out all day and having a bunch of drinks. The title of this post comes from our joke that we had several "last" drinks.

    All of the sudden, we realized that yes, we were the only ones left. It made the 3rd place we closed down for the day! We paid and headed our separate ways home. We decided we would meet up for breakfast. Christina had a noon train to Ferrara and Marles was headed to Matera.    Read more

  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 6

    Ciao Ladies

    March 6, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    I actually slept pretty well last night. I got up and went to the Cafe for coffee. I texted Marles and we decided to meet at 00 for breakfast. As I was walking there, I ran into Christina. We walked to 00 and waited for Marles. There was some confusion, since Christina had suggested another restaurant.

    Once we were all there we had coffees and made fun of Marles' bowl of coffee... Christina taught us that you could measure the sunset by using your hand. All good information.

    Finally, it was time to leave. We all hugged several times. We set up a chat group to stay in touch. It was such a crazy gift to be able to hang out with them for 24 hours!    Read more

  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 6

    Autista

    March 6, 2023 in Italy

    I had to hurry since the car renal place closed ap 1pm. I went back to the room to pick up my passport, car charger, and purse. The car rental place was a 15-minute walk past the Porta Napoli. A few minutes later, I was off in my Fiat Panda.

    It didn't take long for me to get into my Italian driving groove. I took a straight route out of Lecce and headed towards Gallipoli, which is on the west coast of Puglia. On the highway, I remembered how much I love driving here. Stay on the right, except to pass. Then pass and get right back into the right lane. Unless you are a Mercedes going 150k per hour...

    Gallipoli is a port city, and I stopped a few times. I walked along the port. There was a castle, and I am sure some churches. (I have not stepped foot in a church since I've been here!) Since it was midday and cold out, not much was open. There were some fishermen and a few joggers. I decided to skip trying to see anything.
    Instead, I was going to head along the coast to Leuca.

    As I was driving south, there was a boardwalk on the beach area. Most of the food stalls were closed, except one. I hadn't eaten, so I turned around to check it out. It was a mix of a deli and a butcher shop. They made sandwiches (hot and cold), sold fried foods, side dishes and cold cuts by the kilo, but also some cuts of meat. There was a regular menu, but I saw a handwritten sign-- Panino con Polpo 6€. Of course, I have to have the octopus sandwich! There was porchetta by the slice, and I took two slices of that, too.

    Then I was off to the tip of Italy!    Read more

  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 6

    The edge of italy

    March 6, 2023 in Italy

    I stopped at a point on the coast to eat a little bit. It was windy and cool, but I sat on the rocks to enjoy some food. The sandwich was big and delicious. The octopus seemed to be marinated. It also had tomatoes and arugula.

    Moving on, I followed the coastal road which took about 45 minutes to get to Santa Maria di Leuca--the full name. It is the most southern tip of Puglia. I drove through some sort of nature reserve--it reminded me of Florida. Driving is both good and bad. I really can't take any pictures, but I can focus one the scenery...and the road...

    I parked on the main road along the waterfront. Again, this place is probably hopping in the summer, but it is a ghost town now. I passed on seeing the church--again. Instead I drove to the Punta Ristola, which is the farthest point. It was quiet, and I walked out to the point to take some pictures. Apparently there are caves under the cliff. In the summer you can do a boat tour. There was a passageway with stairs, but it looked VERY scary!

    My plan was to drive to Otranto on the east coast. I headed that way on the coastal road, passing through a few towns. This place must be mobbed in warmer weather! It was going to be dark soon, and I decided to pass on Otranto. All the things to see would be outside--not fun in the dark!

    I got on the highway and to Lecce. It took about an hour and a half in total from Leuca. I did stop about 12km away to get gas. It was 1.79 per liter (almost $7.50 per gallon US) . The fill cost 8.50€ . Cars are so efficient that the higher gas cost almost washes out. Dropping off the car was interesting. First of all, I got turned around and ended driving all around Lecce. Next was finding a place to leave the car. It's a city location and there aren't usually parking lots in Italy. I was supposed to park it in any legal spot on the street. Non c'erano niente...there weren't any. Finally I found something and parked. I took a picture of where I parked the car in case I had to do the key drop. But after a few minutes, the guy who checked me in came back. He checked me in and I was off! 67€ well spent.

    It was another fun day.    Read more

  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 6

    Last night in Lecce

    March 6, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F

    After I dropped off the car, I walked back to the hotel. I relaxed a bit before heading out at 7:30ish. There were a few places I had seen, but it was Monday night, and many restaurants were closed.

    I ended up going to 00 for dinner (or Doppiozero), the same place where we had breakfast. It ended up being a bit more upscale than I thought it would be. I started with a Hugo Spritz, which was very good. I think it uses Sambuca. I ordered Spaghettone con Aglio e Tartuffi. It was really good, especially the truffle part. I decided on dessert, and a gentleman took me to the case to look at the choices and told me about each one. I chose the crostini al pignoli, which was a torte with pine nuts over a custard. It was his Nonna's recipe. Then he brought over 3 amaros to choose from. I picked the cinnamon/clove one. He was really interested in telling me about all of them--in Italian. Both of my choices were perfect!

    Before going home, I stopped at Quanto Basta, the cocktail bar from last night. I had a negroni, which came with taralli, olives, and chips. I saw Cynar behind the bar and ordered a Cynar spritz. Then it was time to go to bed!    Read more

  • TravelerItaly Puglia 2023
    Day 7

    Leaving Lecce

    March 7, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    I slept until almost 9am today. I wasn't in a big rush. I booked my train for 11:15, and it's a 25 min walk. I put the cover on the bed and started pulling things out of the closet for packing. When I was reasonably organized, I took a break for breakfast.

    Breakfast was my normal cappuccino and a cornetto--this time with Nutella again. Back at the room, I finished packing by 10am and figured I'd just leave so that I could take my time walking.

    It took a while to walk, mostly because I didn't want to leave! It was a beautiful, sunny morning, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

    I didn't have to wait long for my train. It arrived early since Lecce is the end of the line. For an extra 10€ l booked 1st class. Totally worth it. Not only did I get a single seat, but it was quiet, and they had "cabin service." I got a coffee and a cookie.

    The train stopped in Brindisi before arriving in Bari. The view out the windows was the sea on one side, mountains on the other, and olive groves on both sides. Beautiful!    Read more

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