DAYS 22 - 24
Puglia
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Day 22 Wednesday 2 May
225 miles (2100 total)
Sunny all the way.
The plan was to drive south east over towards the Puglia area, about a five hour drive, longer than we normally do. Not that five hours is too long - more that five hours means we drive through lunch as neither of us wants to drive the Italian motorways after a bottle of fine local wine. The idea is that Brian will drive first, then Sara take over halfway. The plan changes halfway. Having done the 2.5 hours of 80-90 mph dodging the 10% of Italian drivers who really have a Darwinian urge to go extinct, Brian did the right thing. It was unfair to ask Sara to do the same from a standing start. Just too stressful for both parties, so on we hurtled.
We had also planned to stay in one of the famous domed Trulli houses in Alberobello, an opportunity too good to miss. So we missed it.......
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Sara, the admin and hotel part of the team felt that staying in a cave was actually an opportunity well worth missing, especially once she had found a castle with a really big room and even bigger bed attached to a top flight local restaurant. No domed hut for us!!! So we drove over that night and did the domed hut thing as you can see below. Dinner in a domed hut, just no kip in a domed hut.
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Our bedroom is the one in the picture. Those steps lead to our room! Complete with lounge area and massive bed.
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We took the top down on the BMW and drove up to Alberobello in the evening sunshine and found the most amazing area of Trulli houses. All built in the 1800's as stores or huts for poor labourers. Only as recently as 30 years ago have they become treasured and they are all now UN protected. There is a concentration in the town but they are all over the surrounding countryside. Fantastic dinner in a very 'local' restaurant where we shared a starter of a mezze of local specialties. Thank God we shared, there were nine different dishes, and that was the Starter, the course before the Pasta, which of course is the course before the Main (assuming you don't bother with the Anti Pasta).
Day 23 Thursday 3 May
A no long distance driving day
Raining like cats and dogs first thing. Brightened up later. Nice relaxing day.
Sara has booked a meal in the highly rated restaurant at the hotel and so that is the main thing today. Wash the car in the rain to get the dust off. Drive to a hilltop village for some fresh air before we sit down for another 'Degustation'
One of the White Villages of Apulia, this is Cisternia.
The 'White Villages of Apulia are well worth a visit, We took in Ostuni and Cisternia, both a maze of tiny paths and both deserted. We arrived at 1.00 and there was not a soul in sight. We left at 4.00 and all hell broke loose, people everywhere!!!
How are we supposed to know that every single sould in the village buggers off home between 1 and 4. We thought the villages had been evacuated!
Day 24 Friday 4 May
An hour to Bari for the Ferry to Greece
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The ferry needs us on board at 5.30pm and so we will drive over there and spend the night in our (hopefully) private cabin sailing over to the Greek ferry port of Igoumenitsa, just south of the Albanian border. From there we have a short drive to our hotel in Parga for one night.
We also enjoyed a lovely drive through the hills and past literally thousands of massive olive trees. It is a thing in this area to see trees hundreds and hundreds of years old with trunks five feet wide. Like massive monsters marching across the deep red soil of the fields.