Graffiti

Graffiti os an Italian tradition that originated in old Rome. This is one of the best. It says "friendship is like Nutella. What would the world be without it?"

Found in Grottaglie.

Cars

I love the cars!

Campobasso: the return!

Here we are once again in the city of the ancestors. On the way we stopped in Polignano al Mare and Terlizzi. Polignano is a gorgeous cliffside village overlooking the Adriatic. The water is so blue. The man who wrote "Volare" was from there so I took a picture of the girls in front of the statue.

Here in the dining room of the Grand Hotel Rinascimento we have another refusal to order food. Heehee.

More pics on the beach

Lido Afrodite

Deserted beach which is privately owned, like many beaches here. So different from the US. No one was around, everything closed up. Looked pretty forlorn. We were looking for Greek ruins, which we never did find, but Daphne said the water was actually warm.

Ostuni the white city

A whitewashed city on a hilltop. Lydia gamely raced ip the steep steep hill while Deborah said it's nothing to write home about. Can't please everyone lol!

Beautiful? You decide

Ads in Italia

They have interesting ads.

Alberobello

Alberobello is just beautiful. Our trullo is fabulous. Yesterday morning we met the man who has his garden on the property. He was cutting fennel so we asked him about his garden. He cut three bulbs of fennel and two huge chicories for us. Deborah boiled the chicory greens for Gram, and we had chicory shoot salad and fennel salad for dinner.

Dinner

We had a lovely dinner of traditional foods made from local ingredients: rape, califlower, zucchine, tiny knots of house-made mozzarella, caciocavallo, cutlet, semolina bread, salumi, peppers, fried cheese, caffe, wine, grappa, oranges, strawberries.

Yum

Tomorrow we're heading due south to Metaponto al Mare and Metapontium to see some Greek ruins and the sea.

Somehow I'm sure we'll find more cheese.

Deborah's walk with Lydia

They had a great time!

We had the most delicious gelato. Will definitely return tomorrow for more.

Back at the room we had an afternoon snack of straciatella, a local cheese made from strands of mozzarella with cream on delicious local semolina bread made from flour grown and milled locally.

Yum

More with Daphne

We saw a bit of the new city at the very top of the gorge also. A fig tree growing out of a stone wall, and wide new piazze filled with cute Italian boys. After caffe and cioccolato caldo we saw Deb and Lydia walking toward us. They managed the climb through the steep and narrow streets. We went back down into the Sassi arm in arm just as the rain was starting and the stones were getting slick.

Hiking with Daphne

We went to the very end of the Caveoso. Not much has been renovated. We found a gallery spread out through several caves. These caves were formerly a cloister that housed the ospedale psichiatrico: psychiatric hospital ( given the time period, read lunatic asylum).

The exhibit featured several artsts' works on the theme of the former patients. It qas both beautiful and disturbing. The works were displayed amongst peeling frescoes and partially renovated caves accessed by walking along a narrow wooden walkway sometimes suspended over yawning casms.