We did it!! The end of the Way!!

Saturday evening, November 28, 2008

Ciao, all! (Linda; Andy – would it be Ciao, Tutte?)

Whiling away the time before dinner by catching up with the blog events for today! And – WE DID IT! We made it to Brindisi! Left Taranto on a very pleasant, sunny morning – where we and just about everyone else in town was out on the roads. Very crowded in places, but we only had something like 75 km to go for the day. After last night’s rain, we were surprised at how all traces had disappeared in town, but in the countryside, there were many places where the fields were standing in inches of water.

Wound around a bit, finding stretches of the Appian Way as we drove. (Roman roads are fairly easy to identify – they are STRAIGHT as a board!) A little after 11 we came upon a huge shopping mall on the outskirts of Brindisi and saw, for the first time since we left Rome, a McDonald’s!! And, while I would like to be able to say that we drove right past … we didn’t…always good to have the occasional taste of home! So, went in for Big Mac meals (and for all of you who are groaning and holding your heads and asking why – the answer is, because it was there!!) GREAT fries, by the way…Took the opportunity to cruise through the mall – all dressed up for Christmas, and it was evident that the Italians were taking their Christmas shopping seriously! The toy stores in particular were doing brisk business.

It was only another 15-20 minutes from there into town and our hotel, and we arrived around 12:30. Our hotel, the Barsotti, is okay. (Although according to Tripadvisor, it’s the ONLY place in town!) I think it’s really a business sort of hotel; very plain, but easy to access, has parking and a bar – and who could ask for more? We took the second room offered, as the first was just WAY too smoky; obviously no non-smoking rooms here! Nice and clean; has computer access (which we’ll pay for later) – and, while I was channel surfing the TV, what should appear but SKY Calcio (that is, Italian soccer) channel! Went down to the desk to inquire, and turns out that they do have some SKY channels, and had taken CNN off to put the SKY channel on! Absolutely A-OK with me; apparently some game on tonight!!

Left our things and headed out for a walk. And the town was TOTALLY, and I mean TOTALLY desserted! Really rather surreal! We found our way first to the water, and then, a block later, found the Roman column that marked the end of the Appian Way! VERY exciting!! Took some pictures, and wandered through town. The Duomo (central Cathedral) was open; really lovely! Lovely afternoon; didn’t need jackets, although the wind sprang up occasionally. We finally ran across one person here, a couple people there – but basically, EVERYTHING in town was dark and closed up tight! Am assuming that this was for the afternoon nap-time, which is probably very important during the heat of the summer – but on a November afternoon? Or, possibly, everybody was at the shopping mall on the outskirts of town! Returned to the hotel for a nice nap – figure if you can’t find the people, you can at least join them in spirit – asleep, I’m sure!
Will do more exploring later, as the hotel has no restaurant and we will be heading out in search of food.
Feeling a bit odd now that we’ve completed the route of the Appian Way! Not sure how to describe it, actually! It’s not anticlimactic; it’s not disappointed – rather that something we’ve talked about for a long time now has been completed; a good feeling, but one that almost says: Isn’t there more road around here somewhere? (And actually, there are a few more less famous Roman roads that we could investigate; it’s just that the Appian Way has always been our favorite!)

So, will sign off now and catch up again after dinner!

Lots of love,
m

Just back from dinner – a VERY light one, as we have been eating WAY too much these days! Wandered out a bit after 7 for the nightly passagiata. Where all these people have suddenly spring from, we have NO idea! People everywhere! Old people, young people, families – everyone out, and all the shops and stores open! However, one problem: We noticed this somewhere or other – the streets that constitute the nightly passagiata are generally NOT the streets that have restaurants on them! So, wandered up, wandered down – up side streets, down main streets – looking for a restaurant – ANY restaurant! Finally came upon Tratorita Guiseppe, and in we went. Turns out to be GREAT! A VERY local kind of place; all the other people eating were families and friends. We got a nice corner table and ordered a half liter of red wine, a bottle of great sparkling water, and R had pizza marguerita (plain cheese pizza) and I had pizza regina, which had cheese, prosciutto and funghi (mushrooms). Just terrific, and exactly the right amount! Hopefully they will be open tomorrow night, as I’m thinking they might be the ONLY game in town! Passagiated back to our hotel, and now Juve (my favorite soccer team) is playing Reggia from Torino – where, to be honest, the weather looks REALLY awful; not sure if it’s rain that’s pelting down, or snow!! Oh well!! Happily ensconced in our hotel room; more tomorrow!

m