It’s just after 8pm and it’s still 85 degrees. We went for a walk and found a nice park. There’s a cool breeze so we’re enjoying a nightcap. Night everyone.
Beautiful Evening in the Park
Author: Lynn
Exploring a New City
June 17-18
Bologna is the 7th most populous city in Italy. It is a beautiful city that is one of the most prosperous in Italy. By the time we arrived on Monday, checked into the apartment, and washed a load of clothes, it was mid-afternoon before we finally got to the city center. Our flat is only about 750 meters away so it was a pretty easy 20 minute walk.
Our first stop was to the main square in town Piazza Maggiore. Dominating the piazza is the Basilica of San Petronio. St. Petronius is the patron saint of Bologna and is buried here. This church is rather odd in that while construction began in the late 14th century but the façade was never finished. It was only consecrated in 1954. It was gigantic inside with towering gothic style ceilings. Here are some pictures.
Adjacent to Piazza Maggiore is the Piazza del Netunno with the famous fountain that was completed in the mid-16th century.
After lunch (my tortellini soup was amazing) we took a ride on the tourist train to see what else is in the city that we want to visit. The first thing on the list was the Basilica of San Stephano. This church is actually a complex of buildings also known as Seven Churches. According to legend, St. Petronius, a bishop of the city during the 5th century, built the basilica over a temple of the goddess Isis. He was originally buried here but moved to the Basilica of St. Petronio.
As we headed back to the flat we discovered that Pisa isn’t the only town with a leaning tower. There were up to 180 towers built in the 12th and 13th centuries but only about 20 remain.
Then it was a leisurely walk home where we spent a quiet evening.
Today (Tuesday 6/18) is the 21st anniversary of my retirement from the Navy. I can’t believe it’s been that long! I’ve actually been out of the Navy longer than I stayed in….that’s weird.
Anyway, the day started by walking back towards Piazza Maggiore, stopping at the Basilica of San Francesco which was completed in 1263. Of course, it is dedicated to the founder of the Franciscan order…St. Francis. They were in the middle of Mass so I don’t have any pictures of the inside but here’s the outside.
Then on our way to tourist info in Piazza Maggiore, we ran into this church…Chiesa di San Salvatore. It was small but very pretty. Construction started in the early 1600s meaning it was built in the Baroque style which was popular at that time.
The highlight of the day was our 2 1/2 hour food tour with our local guide Benedetta. We were the only people registered so it was a private tour and was absolutely wonderful. We visited two markets, stopping at 5 different places to eat. At each stop we tried Benedetta’s recommended dishes, sticking with local specialties. Bologna is most famous for “inventing” tortellini, mortadella and lasagna. My personal favorite dish was the tortellini stuffed with ricotta cheese and figs with a light butter and cream sauce. I know you’re making faces and thinking it sounds horrible but it was delicious. I’m not sure we’re going to be eating dinner tonight but we brought home a doggie bag of meat that was left over from our 4th stop. We could have finished but we had to save room for gelato, which of course, was the last stop. Bologna actually has a Gelato University that offers over 500 different courses lasting from a few days to 5 weeks in length. How fun would that be. Anyway, the gelato was delicious; the best we’ve had since Licata in Sicily.
After gelato, we strolled back to the house where we will spend the evening relaxing. There is a movie festival here and we thought about walking back to Piazza Maggiore tonight to watch the movie “Rocky”, but decided we didn’t want to walk back at midnight when the movie ended. Also, Benedetta said the seats fill up quickly and we didn’t want to sit there for hours before the movie starts at 9:45pm. So, we’ll take a pass and have another quiet evening at home.
Tomorrow we’re off to the cradle of the Renaissance…Florence. Can’t wait.
On the Road Again
June 16
Before we move on to today, here’s a video I took last night when we found a place to dance. It was a lot of fun. https://youtu.be/sKYzKTbmDhE
We had a nice break at the beach but this morning it was time to hit the road again. Today we headed inland to Assisi. I was there with mom and dad in 1994 and in 1997 it was hit with a devastating earthquake. It only took two years to rebuild and now is a major tourist attraction in the Umbria region.
We parked at our Airbnb flat, which was supposed to be 900 meters from the town walls, so we decided to walk. Well….it might be 900 meters from the wall but it’s 1.3 km from the gate that lets us into the city. It wasn’t too bad getting there, but coming back had some pretty steep hills. And Gracie led us astray, which didn’t help. We ended up walking in circles before we finally found our way.
Anyway, we enjoyed our time in Assisi. It’s a beautiful town with many interesting streets and alleyways.
And of course we visited a few churches. Two of the most important, Basilica of S. Chiara and the Basilica of San Francesco did not allow pictures on the inside.
The Basilica of San Francesco was an amazing church with both an upper and lower basilica. Here is a link to a google page I found that has some pictures of the inside. https://www.google.com/search?biw=1368&bih=795&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=QGIGXYiADNGTlwSWyY_ADQ&q=basilica+st+francis+assisi+pictures&oq=basilica+st+francis+assisi+pictures&gs_l=img.3…165756.170190..170716…1.0..0.248.2681.9j13j1……0….1..gws-wiz-img.wVlJDm0mNsc
In addition to the two levels of the basilica, we also saw the tomb of St. Francis. It was a concrete tomb above a small altar in a chapel below the lower basilica. It was pretty amazing to see.
We stopped at one more church that did allow pictures. It was a small church but ornately decorated.
Before heading back to the house we stopped for lunch. With the roundabout way Gracie took us back to the house we walked over 16,000 steps today. That’s more than we walked in the last 3 days put together. But we needed the exercise after hanging out by the pool for 2 straight days.
We’re about to head out to find a grocery store. We not hungry for dinner but we want to pick up some things for breakfast. If we found a Gelateria along the way that would be okay too.
Tomorrow we’re off to Bologna. It’s a new city for me so that’s very exciting. We’ll talk again then. Ciao.
Vacation from Vacation
June 15
We decided to take a break from vacationing and hang out in the little beach town of Martinsicuro. We left Trani on Thursday and went to the site of the Battle of Cannne that took place in 216BC. It was a gigantic battle between Hannibal’s Carthaginians and the larger Roman army. Well, Hannibal seriously kicked the Romans’ butt in what is regarded as the biggest defeat in Roman history. In fact, it pretty much spelled the end of the Roman empire.
Unfortunately, the park didn’t open until 10:00 and it was only 8:30 so we didn’t get a chance to walk around. But we managed to grab a couple of pictures from the road.
Then we headed to Lanciano where there is a church that holds the Miracle Eucharist. This event took place in the 8th century in Lanciano. When a monk, who had doubts about Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, said the words of consecration at Mass, bread and wine turned into flesh and five droplets of blood. This event has been investigated over the years, as late as the 1980s, and is verified to be true. The blood is still in the sanctuary of the Church of San Francisco. When we arrived at the church, there were quite a few worshippers so we didn’t want to get too close to take pictures.
We also saw the Basilica, but there was a funeral going on so we didn’t stop there to get pictures either.
After getting back to our car, we drove about 90 minutes to Martinsicuro. According to booking.com, it was a beach front hotel….it’s not. It’s about 650 meters from the beach. That was disappointing as we were looking forward to hearing the waves crash along the beach but as neither one of us are that big into the beach (I hate the sand) it wasn’t that big of a deal.
We went to the beach Thursday afternoon and the water wasn’t too cold but it wasn’t all that clean. We only waded for a few minutes, hung out under the umbrella for about an hour, then headed back to the hotel.
Yesterday, we hung out at the pool all day. We got down there at 10am and stayed until about 4:30. The pool area is very nice and the water is a little cold but it was quiet, clean and sand-less. We made sandwiches for lunch and had pork chops for dinner. The only reason we got up to 3000 on our steps was because we went for a walk after dinner to get gelato. It was a wonderfully relaxing day.
So, today is Saturday and we plan the day to be a duplicate of yesterday. It’s a little cloudy today but there is no forecast of rain so it’s back to the pool for the day. We have a little more ham, cheese and bread for lunch but we’re going to go out to dinner. It’s been almost a week since I’ve had a pizza and the place across the street looks pretty good so I think that’s where we’ll go tonight.
Tomorrow we’re heading to Assisi for the day, then it’s on to Bologna and Florence before checking into the Hilton Vacation Resort in Tuscany on Friday. Florence is my favorite city in the world so I’m very excited about visiting there again. We’ve already done the “must see” attractions, so just like Rome, we’ll have a chance to visit the less well-known attractions and take time to sit in a sidewalk café and simply enjoy being in Florence. Can’t wait.
Well, the pool is calling our names so off we go.
Sweltering Hot Day in Apulia
June 12
We cracked a 100 degrees today. Not in a million years would I have expected it to be this hot so early in June. I admit, though, the heat is still better than the rainy, cold weather we had last year in Portugal and Spain.
We had a slow start to our day as Giovanna (Alberobello host) was coming at 9am to check us out. Since we had such a great internet connect, I decided to take time after breakfast to FINISH the project I had been working on intermittently through our trip. It took less than an hour and now it is done, at least what I need to do while we’re in Italy.
We loved our Trulli house but both agree that we wouldn’t want to stay much longer than one night. Any longer and one of use would either get a concussion or need stitches from hitting our head on the stone archways or would break our neck (or other body part) from falling down the stairs.
Once on the road we headed for Bari. The only thing Peter really wanted to see there was a WWII cemetery outside of town and the Basilica of San Nicola. First up was the cemetery which was locked but we were able to grab a pic or two from outside the gates.
Then, according to Gracie, we were only 20 minutes away from the Basilica. Not sure what happened to her today but she was acting quite schizophrenic. She would tell me to turn left then change her mind and tell me to go right; except of course I had already made the left turn. That happened so many times that Peter finally shut her off and we simply followed signs. After about 45 minutes (to go less than 6 km) we finally reached the port where we miraculously found parking. We only put enough money in the meter for one hour as the Basilica was quite close.
The Basilica of Saint Nicholas is actually two churches in one. The main floor is Catholic and the lower floor is Greek Orthodox. It was built between 1081 and 1197. It was built to house relics of St. Nicholas who had chosen Bari as his burial site. The Basilica was quite crowded with not only tourists, but there was a service going on in the Greek Orthodox part and a wedding was just about to start in the Catholic portion. We saw the bride pulling up in a Rolls Royce just as we were leaving.
After stopping for a snack on our way back to the car, we headed for Trani where we are spending the night. For some reason our host wanted us to check in at 2pm instead of the usual 4-5pm so we had to cut our day in half to accommodate her. Of course when we got there the flat wasn’t ready but she showed us around and gave us all the pertinent info before we headed back out.
We drove about 40 minutes to the Castel del Monte which is a 13th century citadel and castle. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is in magnificent condition. The castle is engraved on the Italian version of the one cent Euro coin. Of course that coin is so tiny it’s hard to see, but it’s there.
We scored another free entry with our handicap placard so we’re up to about $80 in savings. That will just about pay for all the gelato we’ve eaten while we’re here.
After the Castle we drove back to Trani to settle into our flat. We have no food so we’re going to walk out a little later to grab some groceries. Unlike other trips, though, we can only buy what we can eat before we leave. It’s too hot in the car to carry food from one city to the next. Yesterday I threw away some cheese I found in our grocery bag which had been in the back of the car for at least 3 days….eww.
Tomorrow we’re heading to a beach resort in Martinsicuro where we’ll stay for 3 nights. We’re starting to reach the saturation point for churches, castles and other old things so we thought we’d hang out at the beach for a few days. It’s about 3 1/2 hours from here and it’s supposed to be beautiful. We may “go quiet” for a few days but I’ll post if anything exciting happens.
The Coolest Place Ever
June 11
Happy Birthday Mom! We miss you!
Today has been a wonderful day. We left Lecci heading to Alberobello via the beach. We didn’t have any specific beach in mind, just ones we found in google. We struck out a couple of times but on our 3rd try we hit pay dirt. Well, actually it was a very nice beach that had sand, not rocks. I even waded in the water up to my mid-calves. While cold, it was warmer than the water in the Hilton pool. I think I could have actually gotten used to it enough to swim but I didn’t have my suit on and there wasn’t anyplace to change. Besides, then I’m all sandy which I hate.
We spent about an hour at the beach before getting back on the road and heading for Alberobello. The unique feature of this town is the Trullo Village, a large collection of stone houses with conical roofs. Symbols meaningful to the owner are often painted on the roofs. It is a much bigger tourist destination than I realized. There were people following flags all over the place.
Most people no longer live in trullo. The part of town we visited are for the tourists with tons of shops and restaurants. Then there is another section of homes across town that are used mainly as rentals.
Here are several pictures of the tourist part of the village.
It’s crazy hot again (had not idea it would be this hot this early in the summer; technically it’s still spring) so we had a lighter lunch of panini in an outdoor café. We were under an umbrella so it wasn’t too bad.
Then we headed to the trulli house where we are spending the night. It’s on the other side of town from the tourist village and is wonderful. It has all the character of a 100 year old trulli but is nicely renovated. Our host, Giovanna, is wonderful and left us all kinds of goodies. Hopefully, Peter won’t either hit his head on the low arched doorways or break his neck on the stairs when he gets up to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Barring those catastrophes, it is a very cool place to spend the night.
Here are a few pictures and a video Peter took.
Here’s the link to the Airbnb listing which has more pictures. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/20097875?source_impression_id=p3_1560263122_bgHB3A1GNh7KBYdt
And here’s the link to the video Peter took that we posted on YouTube.https://youtu.be/HGUtDCriBEU
It’s still early, just 4:45pm now but we’ve been settled for a couple of hours. And this is where we plan to stay for the evening. It will be nice to have a home-cooked dinner for a change. Unlike other adventures, we’ve been staying in more hotels than flats and I’m getting tired of eating out. As much as I love pasta and pizza, too much of a good thing is, well….too much.
Talk soon.
Lecce – Florence of the South
June 10
Evidence of Lecce can be found as early as the Trojan War (12th or 13th century BC) but then it was called Sybar. Lecce has been occupied continuously (but with different names) ever since. Now it is considered Florence of the South because of the amazing architecture.
Today was slightly cooler (only upper 80s) than yesterday and it was pretty windy so there was a nice breeze, especially in the shade. It was still hot, though, so we decided to have an easier day (only 16,400 steps; about 7 miles). We started with the Charles V Castle built in the middle of the 16th century. The ground level was free and since we just saw a big castle yesterday, choose not to pay to see the interior.
After strolling through a market, where Peter got a beach towel, we headed to the Basilica of Santa Croce. Once we finally found it, we discovered that we had to buy tickets at the Piazza Duomo, about a 15 minute walk back in the direction we came from. But we made good use of our time and found a few other cool places, including the Roman Amphitheater which was built in the 2nd century. Over the centuries other monuments were built above it so only part of it has been excavated.
We also stopped at a couple of churches (of course we did) between the amphitheater and the Duomo. The first was the Chiesa Del Gesu, a small but beautiful church. It contained the relics from St. Bernadino, the patron saint of Lecce.
The last stop before the Duomo was the Chiesa di Sant’Irene. This church is considered the historic center of Lecce and was built beginning in 1592. This one was built in the Baroque style and is, therefore, much more ornate. The carvings on the columns were amazing.
We finally made it to the Duomo, which we had seen last night when we went to dinner. The Cathedral was built in 1144 but was rebuilt in 1659. The remains under the main altar are those of Saint Orontius of Lecce, yet another patron saint of the city.
In addition to the church, our ticket allowed us to visit the church museum. There were some nice paintings, silver pieces and statues. It was very reminiscent of the museum at the Abbey of Monte Cassino but not as large.
Once we were done here, we headed back to the Basilica of Santa Croce which was built over 300 years from 1353 to 1695. Once again in the Baroque style, it’s richly decorated. We didn’t get to see the outside as it’s undergoing renovations. To tell the truth, the Basilica, the Duomo and St. Irene’s had very similar looking interiors with the carved columns and ornate decorations.
Once we finished at the Basilica, we stopped for a light lunch then decided that 4 churches, 1 castle and an amphitheater was plenty for one day. We were hot, tired and wanted to get back to the hotel and the pool. It took about 45 minutes to walk home because we stopped several times to look at a few things on the way, including the Naples Gate, which at one time, was the main gate of the city. It was erected in 1548 in anticipation of a state visit from Charles V. It was beautiful.
Then it was home for a swim (for Peter) and laundry (for me). The laundry is on the same floor as the pool so it was easy to keep up with the clothes while hanging out under an umbrella on the pool deck. Of course, in Europe laundry is never easy so it took almost 3 1/2 hours to do 2 loads, but now everything we have is clean; at least for now.
Tomorrow we’re off to Alberobello where we are staying in a Trulli house; we can’t wait.
Castello Aragonese in Taranto
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.
La città sotterranea (The Underground City)
June 8
We skipped breakfast this morning to catch an early ferry. This one was more direct, only 20 minutes across the strait so we were back on the mainland and on our way to Matera by 7:45.
It was a beautiful car ride, following the sea to the west then to the east. Of course, to get from one side to the other we had to go through some mountains. Unfortunately, when we got to that part it was Peter’s turn to drive. He hadn’t driven in 10 days, but he did a great job through the steep road full of twists and turns. I took over again to get us into the city and amazingly enough we found parking right around the corner from our flat.
Since we had skipped breakfast, we were starving so the first thing we did when we arrived was eat lunch. There was a nice restaurant about 10 feet from where we parked. Even though it’s blazing hot today (into the 90s) we ate outside in the shade. There was no air conditioning inside the restaurant, so it was even hotter than outside. We both had delicious pasta. I took a picture of the menu so I can remember the names and, hopefully, find a recipe that I can make when we get home. These were just as good as the Pasta alla Norma we had in Sicily. One of the things we love about our travel adventures is trying new foods and luckily, we get more hits than misses.
We couldn’t check in until 4pm and it was not even 2:00 when we finished lunch, so we decided to explore the city. The area of Matera has been inhabited continuously since the 10th millennium BC (Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age). Those residents lived in underground caves, some of which still exist and are available to tour. More on that later.
The old city is beautiful, filled with ancient buildings and narrow alleyways. The cobblestones are rough on the ankles, though, so we both had to be super careful.
The Matera Cathedral (Duomo) is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Eustice. It was built in the Romanesque style in the 13th century.
Another beautiful church was the Church of St. Francis of Assisi. This is even older than the Duomo as it was built in the 11th century. One cool feature of this church is that it was built over the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. There is a trap door in one of the side chapels that accesses that ancient church.
My favorite, though, was Chiesa San Giovanni Battista. It was much more simple but very beautiful. The construction on this one started in 1230.
We headed back for home about 3:30 as we needed to cool off a bit. The flat is very nice and most importantly, the fridge had a bottle of cold water. I actually used the glass bottle as an ice pack for my ankle which had swollen a little due to the heat. The house is built almost in a cave style with the high rounded ceiling; it’s quite lovely.
After hanging around the house for a couple of hours, we headed back out to check out one of the cave houses. It was quite a walk downhill. While downhill is good, it just means that eventually we’ll have to walk back uphill to get home.
There are several homes to visit. We choose the Case Grotto for no reason other than it was the closest to the house. It was very well done with life size figures. Here are a couple of pictures and I also uploaded a video.
Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/hEc-9VXLXI4
Across the street from the house was a shop displaying the work of a local artist who created an entire village from the stone. It was incredible.
On our way home with our freshly made panini sandwiches, we saw some street entertainers in the main square. It was a lot of fun. https://youtu.be/mtJcgowOe-A
Well, that’s it for tonight. Tomorrow we’re off to Lecce. See you there.
Moving On
