La Vigna Vecchia Fasano

Destination 399

[Arrival from Ferry]

After a night with more than just a fiew hours of sleep on the ferry from Greece, I arrived early in the morning around 7:00am scared facing the heavily industrialized City of Brindisi! The first sight of Italy was not the most charming - hopefully to be changed soon. Therefore, after arrival and one of the quickest Immigragtion check (1 Minute), immediate departure on motorbike to explore more charming places.

See next entry.

My friends and I stayed at this bed and breakfast in Mola just south of Bari. It was the best yet. Large old English style accomodations, we stayed in an apartment with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, large veranda overlooking the main street. It even had a full kitchen. The breakfast was the best we have experienced. It is worth the trip just for the accomodations. A nice beach area with breath taking views is just 10 minutes south in Polignano.

A must see for those off the tourist path.

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.

After spending one more nite in Naples, we boarded the train and headed for Brindisi. There we would catch the overnite ferry to Corfu, Greece. I had been to Corfutown, a couple of times, but this, too, was Dennis' first time, and I was anxious to show him around.

We both thoroughly enjoyed the train ride. Intially, we were in a compartment with a young couple that made-out ...

Hey!! Thank you all for the wonderful comments, i love hearing from everyone I'm sitting in class right now, during our break. Today we have event management class!! it's pretty interesting, we planned an event proposal yesterday and today we are planning an agenda and using excel to create a billing list. it's actually pretty fun! The other day we took a surprise trip instead of Italian Class to a Nature preserve. We drove through a field of trees that ...

Finally some pictures!! Friday night they had live music and dancing in the hotel bar, it was a lot of fun. The band was an italian police cover band. next weekend is a dire straights cover band! For valentines day, the hotel had a big dinner and we had no idea we were going until like 5 minutes beforehand, it was a surprise. they labeled our table as reserved for "Americani". it was awesome! it lasted from 9 to after 1 in the morning, it had like six ...

... i was soooo lost because she speaks no english at all! but i'm catching up. then we have a four hour class of different hospitality related subjects. We eat breakfast at 8:30, lunch at 1 and dinner at 8. Lunch and Dinner both have 2 courses and are deliciousssssss!!!!! The hotel is absolutely beautiful, the weather is incredible, there's actually sun here! and ...

... time now, Brad could mix it up with the best of them, driving Italian style. Barge through a tiny space, hand on horn, mount kerbs, force pedestrians out the way, manoeuver through spaces with an inch free on either side, but it was no good. On the whole trip, after an hour and a half of trying, this one town defeated us. WeŽd planned to go and see the bones of St Nicholas (as in him of Father Christmas fame ...

At 8 in the evening, I went down to Corfu port and checked in with the ferry company only to be told there wasn't a sailing of that ferry that night. We were all perplexed that I'd been issued a ticket until the man behind the desk noticed that the ...

... for family time over a 6 course dinner that took all day to make?  They drive their Fiats and mopeds like they're trying to qualify for the next Formula 1 race.  There is a marked absence of big chains (ie. McDonald's, Starbucks, etc...), so obviously they must be doing something right with the quality of their food and drink.  And don't mess with the mid-afternoon naptime.  Very few things can ...