- Sunday night was our last night with Anna and Cally, so we had an early birthday dinner for Anna at Masseria Frantoio – see week 9 – unbelievable degustation menu again, and almost totally different to week 9 – but no photos due to I.T. issues, (Cally forgot to Airdrop the photos).
- Monday we delivered Anna and Cally to the airport – they were off to Malta. Mother and Father a little sad to wave goodbye – kind of really good to have your kids involved in your “gap year”.
- Adrienne and I had quiet beach time on Monday and Tuesday with some serious training for the Camino – we walked for two and a half hours on Tuesday – about 15 kms.
- Wednesday was a domestic day – we went to La Colonne shopping centre in Brindisi. The summer sales have started and Zara was “mental” – man talk for lots of scary sheilas going ISIS in shops!! Adrienne went into “sales meltdown” and bought nothing, and I found good bargains on shorts – Italian linen for the cost of two coffees in Sydney.
- Thursday and Friday we went on a road trip to the north – first stop was Cannae – where Hannibal beat the crap out of the Romans in 216 BC. It was 37oC and we bumped into an American “nutty professor” wandering about the citadel ruins. In amongst the conversation I discovered that Roman soldiers carried a “sponge on a stick”, (nowadays we have Sorbent – work it out!)
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2300 years old – no wonder it’s a bit worn out - After Cannae was Castel Del Monte – a spectacular octagonal Norman castle built in the 1240’s by Frederick II.
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Grant at the front gate – all the walls are about 2 metres thick and we are at the top of the hill – don’t mess with us!! - But by about 3 pm it was high 30’s and we really only wanted Nastro Azzurro, (the world’s best beer), a cold shower and rosato, so we headed for our B&B in Barletta. Great B&B, but Barletta is a working town and from 1.00pm until 7.00pm don’t expect to find anything open – how hard is it to get a beer!!! I almost ate the waiters arm when we finally found a restaurant that operated during daylight hours!!
- Friday morning was “hot, real hot, so hot I could cook things …” so we were up early and went to Barletta castle
- We spent most of the morning here and then headed south to Trani, but as nice as it was we had had enough heat so headed home.
- As we drove south we noted the signs for “Puglia Outlet Village” – this is serious label shopping so “we went in” and the summer sales were on – what bliss – Adrienne heaven. This was the biggest, fanciest, outlet place I have ever seen – I hate shopping but even I enjoyed it!! So it was hot – but they have mist sprinklers in all the open areas, (brilliant), and we went to a pizzeria – the best pizza ever for Euro 8 – we shopped hard!!
- Saturday was so hot we never left the apartment until about 6pm when I was driven to walk over the road to the enoteca, (wine shop), for a few bottles of red …
- Next week we are doing another road trip to Leuca in the far south, before our next visitors, Joy and Alison, arrive at the end of the week.
Hi Grant, include photo inside and street view for apartment in Carovigno, now that you are both townies. Have visions you are both above the fruit & vega shop, no doubt they still have their own parking rules for their on-going shop business. No need for photo of Dan Murphys over the road, no on second thought include photo. Looks like our girls missed some good shopping places especially the Outlet. Keep up the good travel stories, they are a joy to read especially when a lot is still very fresh in our minds.