Month: November 2011

Today is mostly a driving day but we are excited about the end point. We are staying in Taormina at our favorite hotel, the Villa Ducale. We have stayed there once before. John took a cooking lesson with the father of the manager the last time we were in Taormina. It is top rated on TripAdvisor and we would heartily recommend it to anyone traveling to Sicily.

But first we must drive through Calabria, catch a ferry to cross the Strait of Messina, and then drive the rest of the way to Taormina. The countryside in Calabria is ruggedly beautiful. There are mountains and deep valleys and everything is green. Where the soil is arable olive trees and vegetables are planted. The only drawback is the Autostrada, A-3, which is under construction. It was under construction two years ago and for the past ten years and will continue to be under construction for at least another 10 years. They are reboring all the tunnels and making new bridges and roadway in this land which is pretty hostile to being tamed. We are mostly single-tracked along the way and the ride takes longer than we anticipated. But finally we are at Villa San Giovanni and after making a couple attempts at getting to the ferry terminal, we have success and are all aboard.

We pass our sister ferry, Scilla. There is a town on the mainland called Silla. We wonder if there is one on the Sicily side named Charybdis.

After slogging our way through Messina and having an unsatifactory lunch at a grungy AutoGrill, we reach our hotel perched high on a cliff overlooking the Ionian Sea. Sontina, who helps in the kitchen and with the serving, greets us effusively with hugs and European double cheek kissing. The first thing that happens is that they set you down on their porch with snacks and a glass of prosecco while they take care of your luggage and make sure your room is perfectly prepared.

While we enjoy our welcome, tea time pastries are laid out. Tea time pastries and beverages are at 3 PM every day. We cannot help ourselves and eat a cannoli.

Then we go to our room which is high up in the eaves of the hotel. There are flowers everywhere – in the bathroom, on our pillows, and on the coffee table.

Then at 6 PM there are hors d’ouevres. Who can pass that up? Not us.

Paolo, the manager, suggests a regional wine. It is delicious.

Later we have dinner on the porch. Salads and pasta. And more wine. Diet? Was someone here on a diet? Not today.

I don’t have too much to write about today since mostly we just drive from Lecce in Puglia to Cosenza, Calabria. We do, however, make one stop in Metaponto. Metaponto was founded by the Greeks in the 7th century B.C. There is an archeological site where we view the ruins of this former Greek town. There is not too much left since over the ages the site has been plundered again and again for building materials and the marble has been burnt in the Middle Ages to make mortar.

Metaponto is also where Pythagoras spent his last days. We search around trying to find his burial site but are unable to do so.

We stay at the Holiday Inn in Cosenza. Basically we are here just for staying overnight. We eat at the hotel restaurant. I am having more and more trouble finding good choices to make. I am also less and less inclined to stay rigidly in control. Sigh.

Tomorrow we take the ferry across the strait of Messina to Sicily.

Today we are planning on seeing the sights here in Lecce and do a little shopping. Tonight we plan on a nice meal at a good restaurant. But, of course, the best laid plans….

Lecce is an attractive small city. It is an odd mix of Roman artifacts and Baroque exuberance. Nearly right outside our hotel is a Roman amphitheater. It is about one quarter excavated. Unfortunately a church has been built over a lot of it and apparently churches trump antiquities. It is currently closed to the public due to restoration. We view it from various angles.

One of the most interesting things we see is the obelisk near the Roman amphitheater. It is dedicated to St. Oronzo, the patron saint of Lecce, who stands atop the pillar with his hand outstretched like he is trying to hail a taxi. Too bad for him, we are in a pedestrian zone. Anyway, it seems that the obelisk itself used to be Mile Marker One (or probably Mile Marker the Last) and stood in Brindisi at the end of the Appian Way. It was erected in the second century. Like many things in this part of Italy, it fell down in an earthquake in the 1500’s. The people of Brindisi decided not to re-erect it because, seriously, who needs another piece of ancient Roman architecture. So they gave it to Lecce and now the first bishop of Lecce who was appointed by St. Paul himself stands forever (or at least until the next earthquake) trying to hail a taxi in the center of Lecce.

After this we visit the Basilica of Santa Croce. It was built in the 17th century by the famous architect, Zimbalo. He has decorated every square inch of the facade and the inside with animals, angels, plants, saints, etc. etc. I am not a fan. The Counter-Reformation has not brought out the best in artistic expression in my opinion.

Then we do some shopping. We go to the flea market and look in the shops but I am unable to find anything suitable for a gift or for ourselves.

Then we check out the other Roman theater and the duomo.

Since tonight is our big dinner and we have to eat late, we decide around 2 PM to have lunch. The nice lady at reception steers us to a place right around the corner. We plan on eating lightly but somehow this plan goes awry when a basket of tasty bread shows up with a couple glasses of wine. John has an antipasto of confited baccala. It is an enormous piece of fish on chickpea puree. He likes it a lot.

I have a stack of eggplant, tomatoes and burrata cheese. It is served with a caponata and a sun-dried tomato puree.

By the time we eat these, we are pretty much full. But we have ordered a primo as well. John has a Lecce specialty, cicera e tria, which consists of chickpeas, pasta and fried pasta.

I have spaghettoni with a red bell pepper sauce, mint, sesame seeds and burrata cheese. I am hoping that there will just be a little cheese on top but it is melted through the pasta and the red bell pepper sauce has cream in it. It is tasty but so, so rich. I can only manage to eat a little of it.

We are stuffed. We waddle back to the room and decide to read our books for the rest of the afternoon. Around 5 PM we cancel our 8:30 PM dinner reservations due to being still stuffed from lunch. The rest of the evening is spent quietly digesting.

Tomorrow we head towards Sicily!

John: We hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable Halloween!

Today is November 1, Ognissanti (All Saints Day) here in Italy which means that most everything that’s not a church will be closed. So today is not the day for a walking and shopping tour of Lecce. We decide to head down the heel of Italy – ALL the way down.

First stop, Otranto.

Otranto has been fought over for centuries due to its strategic location at the mouth of the Adriatic Sea (where it meets the Mediterranean). It’s been ruled by early Italian tribes, Romans, Goths of various stripe, Byzantines, Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Turks, Spanish,… you get the picture. If you control Otranto, you have a good shot at charging customs duties to any ship wanting to get into or out of the Adriatic.

Mary: It is so much fun traveling with John. He knows a lot about history. I would have been – “Oh, pretty harbor, let’s go see the church. Wow, what a floor.” Knowing the history behind a place gives you a better sense of why the place exists and how it came to look the way it does.

John: Our destination is the Cathedral, located inside the walled old city. The walls seem to form a giant fortress, with visible Norman, Swabian and Aragonese (Spanish) contributions. It all overlooks a beautiful harbor with incredibly clear water.

The original version of the cathedral was built by the Byzantines in the second half of the 12th century, a bit before the city was taken by the Normans in 1178. Its most striking feature is its mosaic floor, executed by a monk named Pantaleone from 1163 to 1165. In the floor, he embedded an incredible array of images from the Bible, Greek mythology and Christian legend, plus a pictorial calendar / zodiac and an utterly fantastic Bestiary.

We are able to see only a fraction of the images. It’s a festival day, so we must wait until Mass lets out. Of course, the church is set up with pews obscuring much of the floor. Nonetheless, what we can see is jaw-dropping. We buy a guidebook at a local bookstore to fill in the rest.

Mary: Sometimes it is annoying traveling with John. Outside the cathedral a woman comes up to him and asks him a question in Italian. Although I’ve been impressed with how well he is speaking Italian, he doesn’t understand what she is asking. He asks, in Italian, if she speaks English. She says no so they settle on French. I am feeling more than a little inadequate.

John: After a walk around the walls, we pick up some wine and snacks for later and try to head down the coast road to the last place in Italy.

Well, perhaps Jack the GPS has other ideas. Jack has this curious habit of wanting us to cut corners. No matter that we are traveling on a main state road in the correct general direction. He wants us to veer off onto this side road that appears to be little more than a foot wider than our car. After trying this a couple of times, we decide to take Jack with a grain of salt and rely on the traditional European method of looking for signs that point to the next way point on your route. (This requires a map. We have one, yay! Very tiny print, boo!)

We get on the coast road and head south at last. It’s spectacular, some of the most rock-strew terrain we have ever seen. The road has no shoulders, only stone walls everywhere. Also olive groves. We spy a rest area with an old stone watchtower and spend a few minutes gazing out over the beautiful Straits of Otranto.

We arrive at THE END OF THE EARTH, or at least its Latin equivalent. We are thrilled. It’s like reaching the end of US Highway 1 in Key West, Florida. The End. No more land.

We take some pictures and head into the neighboring resort town of Leuca for some lunch. After a couple of passes, we are lucky enough to find a hotel restaurant that’s open. We have salads and pasta. Our pasta dish is Tubettini allo Spada (little tubes with swordfish.) It’s pretty tasty and best of all, the pasta is not undercooked!

We get back to Lecce by the inland (and much more direct) route, and find our hotel easily, thanks to the wonderful directions given to us by the desk clerk. We are grateful not to have had a repeat of yesterday’s arrival adventure.

Tonight, wine and snacks on the terrace.

Tomorrow, a walk through Lecce!

We’ve had a really nice time in Bari but now we move on. On our way to our next stop in Lecce, quite far down the Italian “heel”, we stop at Ostuni. Ostuni is known as the white city because many of the buildings are white. We park the car and take the trek up to the old city. Old cities seem to be pretty difficult to get to. I guess that’s the point. If they are on a hilltop or surrounded by water, they are much more defensible.

Almost to the top, we stop in at the Cathedral of Santa Maria of the Assumption. Built in the latter half of the 15th century, it has been renovated a lot due to earthquakes. There’s not a lot of charm left to someone who is looking for early roots. The rose window is its most striking attribute.

Next on the agenda, lunch. We amble through the narrow streets and come upon a likely candidate, Sapere e Sapori. We are seated at an upstairs table and do our best to order everything local. I am also trying to eat only vegetables today having been protein-ed out last night at the fish extravaganza. We order a platter of vegetables, some fried zucchini, a tomato bruschetta and weird cold soup called acqa frisa. It is basically a bowlful of water in which are floating tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and peppers. There’s also olive oil in it. You are supposed to take the stale bread they give you and let it float around getting soft. Except for the olive oil, this is the ultimate diet lunch.

We are also served some of the best taralli we’ve had all trip. They are circular crispy, shortbready, snacks. These are flavored with rosemary. Clark and Lewis are quite taken with them.

Leaving Ostuni, we travel through countryside covered with olive trees. The trunks on these trees are immense and contorted. John has read that some of the trees in Puglia are over 1000 years old.

We enter Lecce and then, of course, the fun begins. John puts on his Italian driver’s cap and zig zags through traffic. Our GPS, Jack, keeps trying to send us down streets blocked by bollards or in pedestrian zones. Our hotel, the Risorgimento Resort, seems unreachable. As an aside, I think when I booked this, the word resort conjured up visions of sitting on lounges near the sea. Instead we are in the middle of a small city. Anyway after making the circuit of downtown several times and driving in what surely must be a pedestrian zone, John looks out his side window, and the hotel appears. We leave the car in the middle of the street and ask someone in the hotel to come get it. Whew!

Our room is ultra modern. It also has a private terrace which might be of some use if it were a little warmer and the sun didn’t go down at 4:30 PM since Europe is now on Standard Time.

After we get our unpacking done and I have a little lie-down, we go down to the bar. Once again it seems we are almost the only people here. The front desk calls the barman to come and wait on us. We get a couple glasses of wine and some snacks.

We have dinner at the bistro at the hotel. I won’t bother with pictures of my dinner which is a salad and a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce. John is much more adventurous having a starter of chicory greens and fava bean puree.

John’s main course is octopus in tomato sauce.

By the time the elaborate dinner service dance is over, we are exhausted. Tomorrow we will travel to land’s end, the very bottom of the heel of Italy.