June 9
Even though it was a low-key day, we still managed to walk over 22,000 steps. After a short 1-hour drive from Matera, we visited the Castello Aragonese in Taranto. The current fort was constructed in the late 15th century, but it was built over older Greek fortifications that date from the 3rd and 4th century BC.
They have guided tours but since we were the only English speakers on the tour, we had our own tour guide. Arianna is a 16-year-old student who is doing a one-week internship at the Castle. She was as cute as could be and has a very good command of English. She can also speak French and Spanish. We were her first formal tour, and she did a great job. She made us feel pretty old though as she literally hopped downstairs while we took forever to get up and down the many stairs we had to climb.
After the tour we walked to the Duomo, first stopping at the Spartan Museum. Taranto was originally founded by the Spartans in the 8th century BC and is the only colony ever founded by Sparta. The Museum is privately owned and, while small, offered a nice exhibit of items from that era.
It was just a few more blocks to the Duomo. As Cathedrals go, this one was pretty understated but pretty in its own way.
We walked back to the Castle to find the one restaurant open that wasn’t a fish bar. My pasta (gnocchi with pink cream sauce) was delicious, but Peter had a miss with his. It was pasta with Turnip Tops (which would have been a non-starter for me) but he gave it a shot. There were way too many turnip tops, which he said are quite bitter. He did his best but didn’t eat much.
His one recurrent complaint about Europe has been the amount of coffee he gets when he orders one with his meal. If you’ve ever had coffee in Europe, you know that the coffee is strong, so they only drink a little bit of it at any one time. He usually orders coffee Americana lungo (large), but they didn’t have that today.
We made one more stop before getting to Lecce. Peter is always looking for a beach so after about 30 minutes we found this. Not exactly a beach but it was a place he could get into the water. It was rocky but he had his reef booties, so he did okay. I sat on a rock and put my feet in the water; it was really cold.
When we finally made it to the Hilton Garden Inn in Lecce, we discovered that they have a roof top pool. Since it was even hotter than yesterday (98 when we got to Lecce) a dip in the pool seemed just the thing. The water was cold but once used to the temperature it wasn’t too bad. We hung out there for about an hour and then I went for a massage before going out to dinner.
At the desk clerk’s suggestion, we went to a very nice restaurant called Nautilus Garden. We ate outside (mid-70s by 8pm) and it was lovely. To walk off dinner we headed for the Duomo which was beautifully lit. We’ll head back tomorrow to see the inside.
It’s almost midnight so it’s time to wrap this up and check on the Cub score. Fingers are crossed we sweep the Cards. Go Cubs!! Just checked…. they don’t start until 6:05 central which is the middle of the night for us. Will have to wait until morning to see the final score.
Night.