Hotel Ristorante Grotta Palazzese Polignano a Mare

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 ...

... that I need the downtime anyways.

Anyway if you're not a big reader, and your eyes are glazing over by now please don't skip this post (this will likely not be the last time you hear me beg for your readership) - it's as much a travel retrospective as book review, and as fully integrated with my trip as any other.
-Dave

NB: for all you Brits out there, Reading Railroad corresponds to King ...

... was another accident, and guess who it was... yep the hatchback with the kid lying across the back window!!

These people are lunitics on the road, plain and simple!! Or then of course there were the enormous piles of rubbish on the side of the road, one of which self combusted in the heat and was smoking with flames!!! A totally different part of Italy to what we had seen days earlier!

Anyway we make it to Bari in time to board the overnight ferry ...

... a taxi that you haven't called. Jyles insisted though.
I checked the locks on the doors before I got in, and made sure I could escape. It was legitimate, but in a normal situation I would have said no.

We got to the ferry terminal just on time. Since it was an overnight ferry, we got bunk beds and had an awesome sleep.

... red light district of the neigbourhood and the freizes on the walls. This was pretty interesting..and about all we had time for. We wandered out and had a Granita- orange for Dan and blackberry for me. We walked around the stalls selling touristy stuff, they were pretty desperate for a sale which didn't make you want to buy anything!
Another Granita and a sit down later, we walk to the bus to get back on head off to the Greek ...

... the coastal resorts in August - the idea of travelling somewhere quiet and undiscovered was very appealing.
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.

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 ...

... 15 hour boat ride.

We boarded the ferry and set off. Of course on our grocery run we bought some beer and wine, so we began the drinking on the top deck. After a while we had quite the crew: the Australian couple, the 3 Spokane guys, and then 4 Irish lads. We stayed up late drinking and talking under the stars...it was pretty cool.

Then we went to bed. On this ferry ...

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.

... and smells of the beautiful Tuscan countryside spilling in through our open wooden shutters. Our first evening in Tuscany was straight out of the movies as we spread out and spent the afternoon reading in front of a roaring fire. For dinner, we trekked further up the hill to a lovely little trattoria where we enjoyed vino della casa and amazing Pasta with wild boar Ragu. Walking home that night was perhaps the greatest treat of them alll however, as the entire city of ...