La Casa Di Filomena Martina Franca

This is where Pietro, an old Italian guy, jumped into Bruce and navigated us to the trulli. He saved us from a traffic jam in the narrow streets of Puglia.

Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)

Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" – meaning “dome”. See the pictures of the wee houses.

We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus – meaning “beautiful view”. It was beautiful.

... we figured heŽd unlikely be going anywhere, so we could still see him if we came here another time!

We drove down the coast, stopping instead at a tiny little village by the sea, with a stall by the water selling fresh mussels. We bought a couple of kilos and cooked up chilli mussels overlooking the water watching the sun set. Another of our great spots!

Slightly inland were the villages of the ...

Today was a site seeing day for the four of us. We hopped the train and headed to a unique little town called Alberobello. This is the only place in Italy that has the cone shaped roofed houses made out of stone. Alberobello is a UNESCO Site and is something not to be missed. Due to train schedule constraints we didn't have much opportunity to spend time there. Only a quick look around, lunch and then headed to Lecce.

... predominantly painted white and many of them have symbols painted on them which have somewhat of a pagan appearance. Alberobello had two areas that were full of trulli. Unfortunately they had been turned into a bit of a tacky, tourist circus which really ruined the ambience. The trulli we stayed in was made up of four round structures (bedroom, bathroom, living and kitchen) and was located ...

Found our way across from one side of Italy to the other ok to the port of Brindisi, not top of the list for tourist destinations but handy for a ferry! On arrival we were pulled over by three police cars, yes three! I searchd for my documents awaiting the "papers please Engander" where 10 policemen jumped out and spent the next half hour taking photos! We took a cabin and arrived in Greece the ...

... the wildlife runs free. Nothing like American zoos with bulletproof glass, security systems, and bars & gates. We hear you drive through and the giraffes walk up to your car and begin to munch on your hair, hats, or anything else they can get their mouths around. Friends had their cell phone antenna torn off by a monkey. We have been advised to bring apples, carrots, & bread to toss as a peace offering and distract the animals.

... over the harbour and beach; and yesterday we spent the day in Lecce. Lecce is the capital of the region - Apulia; the heel of the boot of Italy. Lecce is of ancient origin; the area was occupied in prehistoric time by the Messapli. In later times it became a Roman Colony of great importance; after the barbarian invasions, it passed into the hands of the Normans until 1860 when it was became part of ...

After not much sleep on a 10 and a half hour ferry, we arrived in Pescara at 7:30am, our first stop in Italy. Quickly passing through customs we proceeded on a five hour drive south to Brindisi, which we soon realized was not very exciting! Lonely Planet was right when they said you would only go to Brindisi to catch a ferry but being us we managed to turn it into quite a dramatic visit. Kel, with only 2 hours sleep, was quite delirious by ...

... the new edition of the book in the States next April. Sunday was the Premio Matteo Salvatore itself, and we reported to the former firehouse in the middle of town now called the Teatro del Fuoco, a fantastic performing arts facility where we joined the producer, Angelo Cavallo of Suoni del Mondo, his wife Teresa, Signor Pieruigi, the great swing bandleader and singer Ninni Maina, Gianni Laterza and his wife, and the other members of the cast: La ...

This morning we bid adieu to Leah's parents and made our way to the train station to catch our train to Bologna with a final destination of Brindisi. But something went wrong and it was delayed. Eventually, luckily, we made it on the train. Unfortunately, because this train was delayed, we only had about 10 minutes to switch trains in Bologna. Of course ...