Hotel Trullidea Alberobello

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 ...

... will recall the story from the cold open of the show's first episode. Echoes and connections between Homicide, the non-fictional account of journalist David Simon's year spent tagging along with the Baltimore Police Homicide squads, and the HBO TV series he went onto create abound. McNulty's overweight sergeant, Jay Landsman, is named and modeled after the real life sergeant of the same name, who makes small ...

So today we leave Rome and head for the costal town of Bari in the south of Italy. Bari is our Port where we will be boarding an overnight Ferry to Greece.

Now you may recall i touched on the top quality driving of the general Italian population, well down south it appears to get even worse! I didn't think i would be able to top seeing the family on the scooter driving the wrong way onto on coming traffic, but apparently i was wrong! As we were heading down ...

After a short amount of time in Pompei we hopped on a train to Bari. We took an overnight ferry to Croatia. We just about missed the boat because our train was late. So we did what you should never do, we accepted a cab ride from a random at the station claiming to be a taxi. Generally it's safe, but I still never think its good to get ...

... down for the night. Some people were sleeping on the deck. There was a pool, which people were using already and a Ala carte restaurant and a Self service one. Dan and I got a drink and claimed a seating area and a few other found us until we had 8 chairs or so. We were almost too afraid to get up in fear of losing them! We went in shifts to have dinner at the self service restaurant. We went around 7.30pm and had tortelli ...

... hire a car! We had decided to travel around the region rather than staying in one place, so we could really get a feel for what it was like. The further we drove from Bari and the Puglia border, the higher we rose, the wilder and more beautiful the scenery became. Basilicata is the most mountainous as well as the least known region of southern Italy. We found out before we came that tourism is not big in Basilicata, although Italians ...

... also on the train (we ended up seeing them again later). They were an Australian couple.

We took our final train to Bari. When we got there we ran into 3 other back packers who happened to be from (believe it or not) SPOKANE, WASHINGTON!!! Unbelievable.

We took a bus to the ferry terminal, booked our ferry ride. Went back to the city for dinner and to get food for ...

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.

... Next on our itinerary is the town of Lecce which has incredible Baroque architecture, and Matera, where there are cave dwellings that were inhabited until just a few years ago. (For trivia buffs, Matera is also known as the location where Mel Gibson filmed "The Passion of the Christ.") If we feel adventurous, we may go to the drive-thru Safari near Alberobello. In true southern Italian style, there are no rules or cages ...