Excelsior Bari

As it turns out, filling that day wasn't so much of a problem.... we tootled out of town, found a beach, wandered about & looked at the boats; tootled back, found somewhere to eat, had a chat with a few Brits and - hey presto! - before you knew it, time for bed! But the one on board was a bit more of a challenge... all 13 hours of it! BIG ...

... by the breakdown of my bike and the need to kill several days in Paris, which I'd been to on enough occasions in the past that I had no desire for sightseeing. But it's also just incredibly well written, with a keen eye for detail, stripped of glamour, pretension, and moralization. Most of all, these cops are 3 dimensional humans, fighting the good, sisyphean fight armed with their wits, the increasingly rare ...

So we get up, get ready, have the usual buffet breakfast that has ceased to be a wonder and a pig out fest. We loaded towards Pompeii and settled in for what we thought would be a 45min drive, try more like 20mins later! Suddenly we were at Pompeii, meeting Enzo again and getting wired for sound so we could hear him. It was pretty hot, but still early..and we went into Pompeii via the Gladiator training ground..past there we went to ...

... the coastal resorts in August - the idea of travelling somewhere quiet and undiscovered was very appealing.<br>We passed very few cars on the journey to Matera, which was actually rather refreshing having spent last summer trying to get away from the over-crowded tourist resorts.<br><br>As the road headed up to the mountains, we passed ancient hilltop towns and villages clinging to rocky limestone plateaus. Often seeming more Greek than ...

... cafe, we couldn't get any service. We kept getting cut in line and the register people would help us. Apparently they don't like tourists here...so, no coffee.<br><br>Took a train from Napoli to Caserta. In caserta I finally got a coffee, and all it was was this tiny little shot glass with the most potent coffee I've ever had...pretty tasty though. We met some people here who ...

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.<br><br>Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)<br><br>Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" &#8211; meaning &#8220;dome&#8221;. See the pictures of the wee houses.<br><br>We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus &#8211; meaning &#8220;beautiful view&#8221;. It was beautiful.

... After lunch we went to meet the Director of Tourism of Puglia. Pretty cool!! Then last night for Sam's birthday we surprised her with a spa trip, and the hotel had a buffet party for her in the bar. Again, the food was fantastic. Lasagna!! (Dad would have died.. again.. ). and other really great dishes. I think i ate more yesterday than i ever have in my entire life. After dinner the hotel came out with a cake that said love mom, and sams' family. It was really sweet. Her ...

... once at the square we had to go to a restaurant to find directions to the hotel. While doiong all of this we were under a very tight time schedule because we were meeting our tour guide at 7:30pm at the hotel. We were supposed to have arrived at 6-6:30ish but because of the train delays we were late, but she was still there when we did arrive. After travelling for so long we just spent the rest of the night getting organized and order Domino's for supper!!!!!!!!!!!!

... passengers in a side passage while everyone else boarded. We finally found someone who spoke English, and learned that we had been about to board the ferry to Albania. Our ferry was delayed by an hour or more. After that experience, Albania is definitely off my list of future vacation destinations. Something disturbing about being examined by fifty pairs of eyes as dark as my own.

... up on Italian bread, cheese and olives. So we find a supermarket, opens again at 4pm. At five oclock the door was half open, no entry allowed, as they tried without success to get their s·$% together. You can´t rely on the Italians to do anything on time or with precision. Sorry Pierre. The ferry. Our Eurail ticket allowed us a cheap "deck pass". How lovely, we thought, and when we found the area, it was great. Best view on the boat, fresh air... Couldnt ...