Thursday, December 11, 2008

Blogging off, for now!!

Well, we are now safely back home in Tucson -- and WOW, what a trip! We would like to thank everyone who went with us -- we enjoyed having you and hearing your comments!

Like all return trips, it seemed to go on forever ... although to be honest (confession here!) we did get to the airport at 6 a.m. for a 10:30 a.m. flight ... we opened the airport up, as we had to wait for Security and United personnel to get to work! (which they did around 7...) The good news, though, is that Fiumicino has MAGNUM CLASSIC bars readily available! YEA! (I have been craving one since Matera, but it was so COLD and then we couldn't find any!!!) Plane trip was long -- almost 10 hours to Washington/Dulles -- and I re-watch Mamma Mia and Journey to the Center of the Earth...also added The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Part II and Mummy III ... hmmm...Got to Dulles on time, and transferred to the LAX flight -- again, LONG -- almost 6 hours!! Was fair to partly unconscious by that time...Stumbled off the plane, R went for the car the hotel, and I got the luggage. Collected everything in a timely manner, and we were off to Arthur and Anne Vaughan's for the night!

Anne had a wonderful dinner of roast sirloin and veggies and cheese and bread waiting for us ... YUM! Chatted until after 11, then collapsed...me until 7:15 a.m. and R until 2 ... then made the drive back to Tucson on Tuesday. Got home around 6.
Would love to say that my jet-lag is better, but it's 3:50 a.m. and I'm blogging...so...thanks again for coming along with us! See you for our next adventure!!

Much love,
m

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Our last full day in Italia!!






Sunday, December 7, 2008

Ciao! Our last posting from Italia! SO sad!!

Dinner last night turned out to be great. We drove toward a small town called Laura, and found a ristorante/pizzeria called Café degli Artistes (Café of the Artists). We were the first ones there, but just barely! The place got PACKED, very quickly; obviously “the” place in town for a Saturday night! (They also had Sky channel and we got to watch the Lazio/InterMilan soccer match!!) R ordered a plate of mussels for his starter; I had insalada caprese (mozzarella and tomato). Then, R ordered penne alla arrabiata (spicy tomato sauce) and I had grilled chicken breast and French fries! (which were WONDERFUL!) All in all, a very fun evening, with excellent food!

Back to the hotel around 9; fell asleep watching the soccer game! Up at 6 and down to breakfast at 7:30; checked out of the hotel by 8:15. Clear blue skies; not a cloud! Then the drive up to Rome! R did a terrific job navigating, and we were able to find everything first time; no problems! It took about 3 hours to make the drive north. And on the way, we passed Capua, and Caserta – where we’d come through several weeks ago! Also, on the mountain tops that we could see both from our balcony this morning, as well as driving north – SNOW! Brrrr! Got colder than I thought it did yesterday, and it was quite some rain!

Pulled off at Fiumicino and headed to our hotel – we thought … and yes, they got us yet again!! Turns out there is the Euro House Hotel (which was where I thought we were going) – and the Euro House INN…who knew? (or who could figure it out?!) R went in to check in, only to be told that we didn’t have a reservation there – the “other” place! Which of course is miles away, much closer to Ostia. Figured out where we were supposed to be; checked in, and dropped the luggage. Large place; living room, small kitchenette, bedroom, patio. It’s fine, although to be honest, how these people manage to live with low wattage light bulbs, I have no idea! HOW CAN THEY SEE??

Headed right around the corner (actually a kilometer or two) to Ostia Antica. We’d only ever been there by train from Rome before, so had to find the car park! Absolutely lovely day for a browse around the grounds. Saw the marketplace, with R’s favorite mosaics (which have now been cordoned off so folks can no longer walk on them; new since our last visit! And it’s a good idea.). Had lunch at their cafeteria – panini of mozzarella, tomato and eggplant – DELICIOUS! And walked some more! Probably covered about half of the grounds – there is SO much to see there! But we decided we’d seen enough sights for one trip, so headed back to the hotel. Filled car up with gas; car parked outside the door, ready for our trip to the airport in the morning!

So, on that note, I will close! Not sure how pictures are going to work out, as this internet connection, while free, is anything but high-speed! Will do what I can, but if the pictures get too much for the system, I will post them when we get home on Tuesday!
Thanks SO much to everyone who came with us, and special thanks to those who made comments as we went along!

More later!
Love,
m

Saturday, December 6, 2008

And the last; promise!







My favorite picture is the one with the red grapevines in front; amphitheatre in back. They're now growing ancient varieties of grapes in the same areas that flourished 2000 years ago!
m

More Pompeii pictures!





The Wonders of Pompeii!






Saturday, December 06, 2008

Ciao!

To catch up on dinner last night: Just down the road is a very nice-looking restaurant, and in we went, after making a complete circuit of the Paestum ruins to see them lit up at night. Just the chef and his wife; very nice people – but WHY do people in this neck of the woods think we’re GERMAN?? So…what did we want? We asked for the menu – but it’s more like a guideline, really; they didn’t necessarily have what was printed. So…while they were out of chicken, and mozzarella, and no bolognaise sauce, we did have matching meals! Started with a plate of absolutely wonderful prosciutto with parmesan cheese and cherry tomatoes – boy, are the tomatoes here great! Then, heaping plates of tagliatelle with a creamy mushroom sauce. Everything was terrific – and we were the only people in the place! No idea how these folks all stay afloat, but figure they’re probably mobbed in the summer months. I know we could have gotten fish there; it was a fishy kind of place, but I’ve had my fill of “seafood salad”, thank you very much!

Well, it’s Saturday evening now, and we’ve just come back from an incredible sort of day! But first, two thoughts that I wanted to share:

First, somewhere in these ramblings I know I’ve mentioned how difficult finding plain ol’ orange juice can be … and we’ve seen things like blood orange juice – but boy, when we came down to breakfast in Matera and found a pitcher of pea-GREEN juice, that was quite a surprise! The only thing I could think of that was that color were kiwis – and guess what? KIWI juice!! Uh…R got a glass (we had to know) and we both tried it … can only imagine how many little kiwis it takes to make up a pitcher of juice! But why anyone would want to is more than either of us can understand…

Second point – it is SUCH off-season in the areas we’ve been visiting that the traffic signals are turned OFF! Now this isn’t really too much of a problem generally – not too much traffic – but boy, occasionally it would be nice to be able to figure out who has the right of way! However, in true Italian fashion, I generally assume it’s mine …

Got up around 6:30 this morning, as we wanted to get an early start to Pompeii. To be honest, the weather forecast for both yesterday and today was pretty gloomy – rain alternating with showers alternating with heavy rain … However, yesterday, while we did have some showers, for the most part, the day was sunny and lovely! So much for weather forecasts…So, downstairs for breakfast (more Kiwi juice!!) and then out by about 8:15 a.m. According to information in our room, it’s “only” 60 km (about 36 miles) from here to Pompeii … WRONG!! Possibly as the crow flies…

So, started out, heading toward the autostrade (equivalent to an American freeway)…and by golly, those Italian sign painters got us yet again! Led us up some really odd roads, and then, voila – the signs stopped altogether! We’ve figured it like this: The signs are really for the people who live in the area – so that when you get “close” enough, everybody who needs to know already knows which way to go – so why bother with another sign?? GRRRRRR……FINALLY found the autostrade; certainly NOT where we’d intended, but once on it, we sailed right into Pompei, right to the excavations. Found a very close place to park, and headed in.

One word: WOW! We’d been there probably 10 years ago, and it had been in POURING rain. We had the place to ourselves, but golly, the weather was SO bad. Today, however, while we did have occasional showers, for the most part, the sunny, blue skies were wonderful! And, not too many people, either – and as they were mostly in tour groups, they were fairly easy to avoid.

We went all over the excavations – I had forgotten how beautiful the wall murals were; how vibrant the paint, even after 2000 years! R is right – because the city virtually “stopped” at a single moment in time, it is so easy to picture people living here, going about their daily business – it’s wonderful! And, as it was Saturday, many of the buildings were opened. We would really recommend Pompeii as a sight that everyone should see. It will stay with you forever, believe me!

Stayed until afternoon, when we didn’t think we could walk any more (and those Roman streets are NOT easy to walk on!!) Found what we thought was our exit – and we were wrong! Fortunately, didn’t have to walk too far back to the carpark. Did stop and split a pizza Margarita; just needed a little something, and while R says he is swearing off (or at!) pizza for the immediate future, he did relent today.

Then, to be honest, came some of the most harrowing driving I’ve ever been a part of – and I drive in Rome, remember!! But compared to this … of course, the sign painters got us yet again. We were following the little green signs saying “A3 Salerno” – and suddenly, they just disappeared, and said “A3 Napoli” instead! Wasn’t sure what to do, (but VERY sure we didn’t want to go to Naples) so went straight, and ended up on a restricted access road heading straight to Castellammare – my alternative was to head off to the Amalfi Coast! (And anybody who has ever been on that road, knows it’s hard to do a U-turn!) So, landed in Castellammare on a Saturday afternoon, with EVERYBODY in town out for the day!!! Truly an incredible mess (RRZ– the Castellammare Mess! You would have HATED it! I certainly did!) – had to drive for absolutely miles with scooters buzzing every which direction, trucks and cars pulling in and out; absolute and total chaos. My nerves were a tad on edge, but R did a truly incredible job navigating – and this time, the signs to the A3 actually went all the way to the autostrade! How did that happen??

From there it was an easy cruise back to Paestum. We got off just south of Salerno and took the beautiful coast road all the way back. Beautiful views; very rough sea; would hate to be on a cruise ship out there today! On arrival, we found the parking lot at our hotel was absolutely PACKED, as a wedding reception (Francesca and Guiseppe) going on, as well as tour bus … hmmm…

Will close now; more later!
Am planning on posting lots of pictures of Pompeii – hope you enjoy as much as we did!
Love,
m

Friday, December 5, 2008

Whoops! Forgot the view from our balcony!!

A bit more Paestum ...






...including the view from our balcony!

m

Starting to turn towards home!!







Pictures of Paestum -- including our guide dog!!

Friday, December 05, 2008

Ciao!

Well, we’ve now turned the car around and are starting to head back toward Rome. Got up this morning in our warm little cave in Matera, had breakfast, packed up and out we went. Lovely day in Matera; blue skies, sunny and breezy – not really cold exactly, but rather crisp. Headed west toward Potenza, as this was to be our big driving day; all the way to the west coast of Italy, to Paestum (south of Salerno).

Actually, with great roads and fairly good weather (a few splotches of rain, but not bad at all!) we made it to Paestum in 2 ½ hours! Then to find our hotel…well…talk about hotel signs! There must be dozens of hotels in this area – apparently a VERY popular place! We were looking for the Best Western Esplanade. Found some of the right signs, turned a corner, and oh my! The Savoy Beach Hotel – just a beautiful place, right next to our little BW…oh well! R went into the BW to get our room, and came out a minute later saying: They don’t have a room for us (very long pause…) We’ve been upgraded to the Savoy Beach Hotel next door!!!! Seemed very unreal, to be honest, but we headed next door! The Savoy is a HUGE lovely hotel; lots of glass, really lovely rooms! Turns out that both properties – the BW and this one are owned by the same folks; and occasionally they upgrade people from one property to the other!! Wow!! So, for something like 75 Euros a night, we have a lovely 4 star hotel with a balcony from which we can see one of the Paestum temples! And a TERRIFIC bathtub! (Also fairly good TV, I think…)

We dropped everything in the room, and then headed over to the ruins (scavi) at Paestum; only a kilometer or so away. Took us a bit to find the right entrance – only one seems to be open in the off-season, but finally found the right place. So nice to have the place to ourselves – although to be honest, we did see two other visitors while we were walking. Took lots of pictures; toured the site – in company with a very friendly dog, who adopted us when we came in! I figured he was one of the tour guides…just making sure that we didn’t do anything we weren’t supposed to!

The last time we were here – probably 10 years ago or so! – the major temples had lots of scaffolding around them, as they were in the process of being restored. (It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.) SO nice to see them “au natural” as it were! They date from the 5th and 6th centuries, B.C. and are some of the best preserve Greek temples. After our walk through the grounds, we headed across the street to the wonderful Paestum museum; truly a gem! Not only do they have some explanations in English (which is always helpful!) their collection is superb! We would highly recommend this site to anybody who likes Greek/Roman ruins! Only one slight problem…

This adventure started over a year and a half ago, when we went with Arthur and Anne Vaughan to the Getty Malibu museum – and found the book “The Appian Way.” Look where it has taken us!! So what do we find today?? The Atlas of the Roman World …oh my, I can see what we may have to look forward to! Did you know that the Romans made it as far as Romania?? And Bulgaria? Sheesh!! Where do we begin!

Back to the hotel at this point (grabbing a wonderful cioccoloto gelato on the way) for a rest. Had a drink in the lovely bar – prosecco for me and a small goldfish bowl of red wine for R – along with a plate of dolce (cookies) as well as figs – regular and chocolate-covered! Yum!! Then upstairs, where we are trying very hard to get this room warmed up! WHY are caves SO easy to heat?! Oh well!!

Still not sure what we’re doing for dinner tonight. This hotel has a very elegant restaurant, but we’re not entirely convinced that we’re in the “elegant” mood tonight! So, more later!!

Much love,
m

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The last of the white truffles...







More pictures of Matera taken today on my walk ... and my new hat!

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Ciao, Ancora! (that’s again, although I’m not sure it’s spelled correctly!)

It was raining all morning, but despite this, after breakfast we decided to head to the
Archeological Museum. A terrific collection!! Lovely building; even some English in places, which was nice. Had a good look around, then headed back out into the rain. As it was nearly lunchtime, we decided to stop for hot chocolate at our favorite local café. Wow! It was like liquid Hershey bars! I loved it, but R very uncertain. (Actually, he has decided that he is just about “coffee-ed” out – something I never thought I’d see!) Then had lunch – R had a grilled sandwich of smoked cheese, smoked mushrooms and spicy salami – it looked (and was) good! And I had a salad with tomato, mozzarella and tuna (from a can); it was excellent, although probably not the best thing on a cold and rainy day!

From there, we headed back to our cave, as R wanted a lie-down. (Actually, I think it was the combined fact that he feel’s I’m walking his chubby little legs off, and that he was in the midst of a good book that he wanted to finish! Oh well!) About 3, it stopped raining, and the sun actually came out for a bit, so I decided to take a walk by myself. A good thing I did, as R would NOT have liked all the up and down steps! I walked down into the Sassi from the top, crossed over, and headed up the other side to the Duomo. VERY, VERY cold out, but clearing up – I think that a major cold front has moved through into the area with the storm – wishing I’d brought warmer clothes and my HAT! However… Wandered quite a bit, up back into town and the main square. I think there is a music school here, possibly as part of the university, because the other night when we were walking, we heard someone practicing the piano. Then today, I heard a flute practicing scales, and then something like a horn joining in; very lovely, with the old stone stairs and walls! Walked into town and found a place where I think (when they reopen this evening) I may be able to get a HAT! Know that we are at the end of the trip, but I HATE when my ears are cold, and we’re hoping to see Paestum tomorrow, and possibly Pompeii on Saturday, and Antica Ostia on Sunday, so figure that I’ll get some use out of it under any circumstances!

So, heading out now to shop and go to dinner. Will let you know how it was when we get back! But I also wanted to post some more pictures of Matera. It is SO difficult to describe this place, but I’m hoping that you’ll be able to see from the photos that this place is truly like a rabbit-warren; although R says it’s more like an Escher drawing…

Much love and more later!
m

Well, we’re back!!! And I have a HAT! (Note picture!) LOVE my hat! And it’ll even keep my ears warm – what a concept! Back to Nadi for the last time … will really miss that place; back to “our” table! We both had ravioli of the day for starters – ravioli stuffed with pumpkin, in a tomato sauce – just wonderful! Then for mains, R had the roast chicken, and I had steak, rare, with the last of their white truffles! YUM! Will probably not have truffles again for another year … will have lots to remember! They have to be my FAVORITE food!! Back to the hotel; cold, clear night – and bed!!

m

Back in "our" cave...





Dinner at Nadi, our favorite Matera restaurant!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Ciao!

While we really loved our time in Lecce, do have to admit that having internet access is wonderful!

Seems like it rained ALL of Tuesday night; lots of lightening and thunder – which sounded really odd ricocheting in our stone-vaulted apartment! We got up around 7, breakfasted at 8, and were ready to go around 9:30. Our plan to keep all of our things in a few places worked well (the place was SO big) so that I have hopes that we didn’t forget anything! Paid the bill, said goodbye to Anna, our wonderful hostess, and promised to come back one day!! Then, with LOTS of help from R and Anna, I backed the care carefully out of the courtyard and on to the street. (Does get a bit confusing when two people are giving directions, especially when one set of them is coming in Italian!) Took a bit to wind around and through Lecce to find the right road heading north toward Brindisi.

R wanted to retrace a bit of the Appian Way that we missed earlier, so we headed first north toward Brindisi and then west to Oria. And it POURED…for we folks who are used to the occasional monsoons in Arizona, this was VERY unusual!

Finally, as we were nearing Taranto, the rain started letting up, and by the time we got to Matera, it had stopped completely, although it was very gray and cloudy. We drove right to our very favorite Laundromat (yes, folks, this is another laundry day! – only our second, and also our last!) Did our laundry; no problems, and were done by about 1:30. Drove directly to our hotel’s parking lot, left the car, and schlepped the luggage back to the hotel. I left R at the top of the hotel, while I went downstairs and checked us in, got our computer cable, and passwords and such.

R has somehow (and he says it’s from me!) managed to catch quite a cold. Fortunately, it hasn’t affected his throat at all – it’s the stuffy-head, runny-nose kind of thing. He has been dealing with this for the past several days, and has been a real trooper! But it was nice that we were back in “our” cave; it’s warm and comfortable, and he was able to sleep quite a bit in the afternoon.

Rousted him out about 7, and went for our passagiata – found a grocery store this time, and purchased a couple of large bottles of water. Then headed down the steps to the bottom of the sassi, to Nadi, our favorite restaurant. R wanted to check out some other places to eat, so we walked … and walked…and found one of the restaurants recommended in one of our articles. Looked at their menu, and … decided to go back to Nadi!

This time, I had bresaola salad for starters, followed by a plate of wonderfully cooked “tagliatelle with white truffles. R had orrichetti (little ears) with an artichoke sauce – Yummy! His main was a steak, cooked rare, with grilled vegetables. This was followed by a plate of little goodies – some chocolate, some nut bread – all accompanied by a wonderful local red wine! Guess where we’re going to dinner tonight?? [Note from Robert: They have one truffle left and are saving it for Margaret, so we feel obligated to go there for dinner tonight. Margaret, who has an incredible liking for truffles, is very happy.]

Headed back to the hotel and to bed. Woke up sometime during the night to the sound of rain … here we go again! According to the forecast for Naples, there should be some variety of “wet” for the next week! Something like “heavy showers” “showers” “rain” – oh well! Think today we’ll explore of Matera and just hang out, in preparation for our cross-country dash tomorrow to Paestum!

Take care!
Lots of love!
m

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

All the way to the bottom of the "heel"!







Absolutely stunning scenery following the coast

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Ciao!
Still cannot believe it is December!! Where has 2008 gone?? Woke up about 6 this morning to a lovely, clear day – beautiful blue skies again. Breakfast is served in our flat. We have a small fridge, a hot plate, kettle, etc. as well as a table fully set. Our warm pastries arrived just on the dot at 8, and we enjoyed them very much! They do have some very odd juices here, though – difficult to find plain old orange – rather we have peach, and pineapple and apricot … hmmm…

Headed out about 8:30 a.m. – unfortunately having to ask Anna, our wonderful landlady, to organize the car procession. The inner courtyard holds 6 cars; two rows of three. And naturally, ours was the first one in one of the rows! R did the honors of backing out – and let me tell you, heading backend first into raging street traffic can take some doing! Negotiated our way out of the city, and headed southeast – our objective is Otranto and finally, the southern most tip of the Italian “heel” – Santa Maria di Leuca. (R likes to collect “ends” – Chilean, South African, Hawaiian, etc.)

WOW! What an incredible drive! And, being off-season, we had the road basically to ourselves! We hit the coast road at Otranto, and from there to S. Marie di Leuca, the scenery was incredible. Just a few towns, but beautiful roads overlooking cliffs and lots of crashing waves. Reminded us both of Highway 1 at Big Sur, or the “road to Hana” in Hawaii (except a lot fewer people). We were able to take our time and poke along and stop when we wanted for pictures. Just truly beautiful! This was an area populated by native peoples even before the Romans, and some of the vestiges of their settlements remain – mostly series of dry-stone (no mortar) walls and fences – they were everywhere; truly beautiful, and R read in one of the guidebooks that these walls are used even today to mark property boundaries. There were also several larger towns, like Santa Cesarea de Terme; obviously very touristy in the summers; huge, white hotels; lots of restarants. All very quiet now, but a lovely day – about 70 degrees with a nice breeze blowing. We really enjoyed it!

Drove past the southern-most point and started heading back north up the west side of the boot, but scenery not nearly as wonderful! Much flatter, much less dramatic, so we decided to head back to the other side and take the road back north, to see what we’d gone past earlier in the day. Stopped at a store for some cokes and cookies; we’ll forgo lunch for dinner tonight (if we’re hungry ever again…) Just a wonderful drive! Headed back into Lecce around 2, and found our way back to the flat with no problem! No, though, we’re #2 in one line…not sure what the protocol is if we want to go for a walk, but expect it will all work itself out!

Also, wanted to make a comment about tennis shoes…I had noticed a couple of years ago that almost all of the men and kids in France were into tennies of one sort or another – meaning that in just a few years, the girls would turn into ladies, and voila, another population converted! Here, many of the women are now wearing tennis shoes, but many of them are multi-colored or black (the Italian national color) and almost all of the ladies shoes use velcro to close and NOT shoe strings! Very interesting! While there are many brands of shoes available, it seems that most people are into Nike for some reason. Wonder how many of them are “custom ordered” Nike shoes that you can get in the States??

More later!
m

Catching up isn't all that easy to do...







Very small church, named for St. Mark; note Lion of Venice;
Column from the end of the Appian Way, given to Lecce in the 1500's;
Roman amphitheatre;
Our suite!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Ciao! And Happy December to all! (If anyone at is interested, we called a truce to “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” for this month, so don’t ask me who won last night!)

Woke up to a nice, breezy morning in Brindisi. R had some Caltech work to do, which apparently he’d been thinking about since 2 a.m., so he went downstairs to purchase two more hours of internet access (2 Euros). As breakfast wasn’t really worth worrying about, I went down without him, so he could finish up. I was ready to go around 8. However, our first real problem on this trip happened then! The TV set in the room was wall-mounted … over the desk … and have to say, that as I’m known far and wide as the klutzy member of the partnership – Robert did a “Margaret” – big time. As he was leaning over to unplug the computer – ka-bam!! And wow, heads do bleed quite a bit, don’t they?! Took us quite a while to staunch the bleeding – really a mess, and in addition to a nice scrape, he has quite a deep head laceration. Fortunately, his head is also pretty hard, and some Neosporin seemed to help quite a bit … can’t wait until he tries to wash his head tomorrow…

Got on the road to Lecce – only to find out that it is only something like 40 miles from Brindisi! And, as we were heading for a B&B, I was a bit concerned about arriving WAY too early! However, on we pushed. Figured if we could just drop the luggage, we could find something to in town. So…drove into Lecce at rush-hour; and boy, do they have traffic here! But a truly beautiful little city! Very baroque, with lots of interesting things to see. Got here around 10; pulled up across the street while R looked for the address…the problem with B&B’s is that they rarely have lots of signs pointing the way!

Turns out l’Orangerie d’Epoque is in a BEAUTIFUL old palazzo right off the main street! You open the double doors and the car drives right in – may not drive out again ever, but it was a start! Absolutely INCREDIBLE lady owns the house, and we have our own SUITE! HUGE room, divided into entry way, living room, TV room, kitchen/eating area, and bedroom – plus bath! Very, very beautiful and comfortable! And all at 90 Euros a night!!

We moved things in, then decided to head into town to look around. Our block is one of the main streets surrounding the city, and across it is the “old town” – a jumble of wonderful streets; beautiful shops and squares and churches…apparently there are some 40 in the immediate area alone! Headed first to the information office, where our map was gone over and things suggested; very helpful. However, it was now 11 a.m. and, like Brindisi, EVERYTHING closes in this town from noon to 4 or 5! Even the churches!! Oh well!!

Went first to the old Roman amphitheatre (I know we said we’d finished with the road, but those old Romans just keep popping up everywhere!). Also saw the second column that ended the Appian Way at Brindisi – a gift to Lecce after their patron saint helped spare Brindisi from the plague in the 1500’s! Found a place for a sit-down and drink while we went over the map and guidebook. (Note: They are setting up for a MAJOR concert in this square tonight – forget the name of the singer, but R doubts that it’s classical…quite a production!) Wandered a bit, finding the second Roman theatre and the beautiful Duomo, and finally headed into a restaurant for lunch. Both had pizza – R margarita and mine had tomato, cheese and eggplant – YUM! When we came out from lunch, it was absolutely POURING out!! And I mean really coming down! We figured the best thing to do would be to head back to the flat for a rest – and hopefully the rain would let up!

Up again around 3:30 and decided to go to the provincial museum down the street – apparently the ONLY thing that doesn’t close from 12 noon to 4! It re-opens at 2:30! So, schlepped down the street – probably half-mile or so, in the pouring rain to the museum. Again, we were the ONLY people there – but at least they had most of the lights on before we got there! A really wonderful collection!! Archeological finds from all over the area, including Egnazia, where we went yesterday. We saw some really unique pieces; found a pot that I would LOVE to take home!! And boy, did it POUR while we were inside! (And unfortunately the museum roof leaks, and there were buckets to watch out for…) By the time we finished with the museum, the rain had stopped, and there were big patches of blue sky overhead! What amazing weather! We walked back through town, tried to visit an open church or two – but it’s REALLY hard to see things in the DARK, but as R says, if it’s just us…and retraced out way back to the flat. By now, the heat was on, and it’s VERY comfortable! It was never really cold at all today; very temperate, in fact; just DAMP!

We absolutely LOVE our place, AND Lecce! Both incredible! My only worry, though, is that this place is SO big, and there’s so much stuff in it, that it would be easy to forget something – so we’re trying really hard to keep things together, to make it easier for us to pack up!!

Not much more for the moment! We’re debating if we can face dinner tonight … I think a Magnum Classic would be just fine, but R does have his standards!!

More later!
Much love!
m

Editor’s Note: We did go for a stroll last night, but NOT to look for food! We are still SO full of wonderful food from the past several weeks, that we may never eat again! Rather, we went looking for an internet café – and of course it wasn’t there (Lonely Planet slips up!). Got directions from someone in a store to another site, and it wasn’t there either! So, have decided to wait until we get to Matera tomorrow to post M & T.
However, I did get my Magnum Classic for dinner, and along with cookies and juice in the flat, we did just fine!