In search of more ruins!

National Museum
Mosaic floor
Pictures of our hotel room in Taranto, and view from one of the windows!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Ciao, Everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Was REALLY wishing for some turkey yesterday, but pizza had to suffice instead! Oh well! Turkey when we get home!

Got up yesterday to another nice day in Matera. Down for breakfast, and checked out. (But will be back next week! Yea!) Decided that as we were MUCH closer to the top of town than the bottom, that we’d schlep our stuff to the garage. Wasn’t too bad, actually, although rolling cases make LOTS of noise when rolling over cobblestones! Talk about being unobtrusive! Pulled out of town around 9:30; out Via Nationale (past our wonderful laundry!) and out to the Via Appia. No problems as we followed the road; no actual traces that we could find; very agricultural area.

Got to Taranto about 11 – BIG city, and actually, quite attractive! R guided us right to our hotel via an amazing maze of one-way streets (he is the best navigator in the entire WORLD!), and we parked the car in the underground garage down the block. Our room was ready, and in we came – WHEW! We’ve got a LOVELY apartment! Even has a kitchen! You walk into an antechamber (with lots of storage space), then into the living/dining room. (Note: GREAT TV!! SKY TV with wonderful selection of channels!) Our room is on the corner, and there are huge doors on each wall opening onto a balcony that runs around the corner! The view is of the canal on one side, and the Gulf of Taranto on the other! Just amazing! In the corner of the living room is a spiral staircase that leads up to the loft bedroom and bath. Again, more storage, lovely views out the windows! WOW! Taranto is a very large port city, and is the largest Italian Naval port after Spezia. The bed is REALLY hard; like a board, and feels GREAT! Got the best night’s sleep since we left Tucson!

Dropped everything off and headed to the National Museum. It is still in process of renovation, but the first floor was complete; lovely collection of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts and mosaics. Very, very enjoyable! And, everything was signed in Italian AND English! How nice for us!

Taranto started life as a Spartan (Greek) city, before it was taken over by the Romans. And, while there isn’t too much that remains from the old in town (an incredible amount of building and tearing up around here), the museum had some great stuff! (Which causes R to wonder what’s currently left under various parts of the city!)

Lunchtime after the museum, and we found a great cafeteria in town. We got wonderful squares of pizza – R tomato only; mine with mozzarella – along with what appears to be “the usual” snacks – a bowl of olives, a plate of appetizer-size pizza, little sandwiches with salami and cheese, puff pastry with sausage, as well as a small bowl of mozzarella! Just GREAT! Walked around a bit more to see the Temple of Poseidon and the fortress (which has been taken over by the Navy) – and stopped for a Magnum Classic for dessert!
Decided we’d seen enough, so waddled back to the hotel for a nap. Darkness arrives very early these days – around 4:45! – so we waited until around 7 to head out for our evening passagiata – and wow, seems like everyone in town is out strolling! All the stores are open, everyone heading up one side and down the other – great pedestrian area. Interesting that there doesn’t seem to be very many restaurants in this area – have decided to eat in the hotel tonight, and locate restaurants tomorrow ... not too hungry, actually, after that filling lunch!

Found “restaurant row” – down the street along the canal from our hotel! – and picked out a nice place for Friday night. Then into the hotel for dinner. We are traveling in an area where English really isn’t spoken much. The waiter was very confused, but fortunately we don’t need an English menu, and were able to order … however, he did talk me into changing my mind from orrichetti (little ears) with tomato to with rape, their local speciality.

R’s starter was a plate of mussels, grown locally. He said they were WONDERFUL! I had a bresaola salad – just great … which was good, because when my pasta came, it included ANCHOVIES! YECK!!! The rape was quite bitter, and not to my liking, but the pasta (that which wasn’t tainted by anchovies…) was quite good. R ordered scampi – he got three of them; huge, and of course, WHOLE! Hmmm…interesting course, that’s for sure. REALLY was missing turkey at that point!! Local red wine was excellent.

Headed up to the room around 9:30; slept REALLY well and woke around 7 to a rainy day. Supposed to be like this all day…not hard rain, but fairly drippy. Will get the car about 9 and head along the coast for a drive!

More later!
Love,
m