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