Hotel Lo Smeraldo Brindisi

Destination 399<br><br>[Arrival from Ferry]<br><br>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.<br><br>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. <br><br>A must see for those off the tourist path. <br>

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.

... entire time. We kept getting tickled, and finally Dennis got up, and located another compartment for us.<br><br>There is nothing more relaxing to me than to sit back and watch the world go by, on the train.<br><br>We arrived in Brindisi in just enough time to purchase and board our ferry. The room on the boat was small, but comfortable. We would arrive in Corfu the next morning.

... over 500 years old and ended up at the Adriatic sea! It was absolutely beautiful and i took a ton of pictures for you :) Tonight me and sam are taking a train trip to Rome!!!!!! the train leaves tonight at 9:30 pm and we dont' get there until 6 am tomorrow. We are meeting up with a teacher they had the first week, staying in a hotel and coming back on Sunday. I am so excited!! i will be sure to take lots and lots of pictures. love and miss you all!!

... and flowers! it's amazing. the architecture is beautiful. I havn't done much yet, but some shopping and gelato eating :) We are taking a weekend trip to Rome in a couple weeks and i'm reallyyy excited! i'll put some pictures up soon. oh, and i cut my hair the first night i was here! it's a lot shorter and i have bangs. That's all i can think of for now! Ciao!

(Note : All entries from now until Perth in November are way<br>shorter than they should be, as all out text got stolen, together with<br>our laptop, all our valuables, and almost our whole campervan, when it<br>was broken into and trashed in Rome at the end of October. Have a look<br>at that entry if you want to have a look at the damage the *******s<br>did. The next month or so´s text is written 6 months later ...

... take our time parking and get some cash etc etc. We are definitely not the adrenaline travelers we'd like to be. We drove into Brindisi town to do some organizing and internetting. It is actually a really gorgeous old town. Romans Ruins, Old Piazzas and Churches and tiny winding cobble stone streets. Not a bad place to while away the time. The Tourist info place was great, it looks as though we can get all our car and practical stuff sorted here, gas ...

... outdoor oven with lots of wood and it was clear that BIG things were about to happen. At 10 am 2 school buses drove up and disgorged about 40 primary school kids with their teachers. They were here to learn about the old ways of the country and Francesca and Cosimo showed them over the farm. They went to the orchards and picked cherries and saw all the fields of olives and grapes, and told how they were cultivated. They were shown the animals and tried to catch the rabbits. Saw ...

... USA and Chris and Franca from Adelaide AUZ... We had a laugh at dinner. Lovely people we a good sense of humour...we headed to the bar and then had an early night to yet again recover from the boat and the sniffles we now had! 18 July 2004 Really lazy day ...went to the beach all day... the palace has its own beach with sun loungers and water trampoline... Umbrellas were 1.50 Euro extra. Met up with Chris and Franca again at the beach and then again at dinner ...with the other ...