Pasticciotto, Pasta and Puglia

The Puglia region of Italy is found at the SE side of Italy, the heel of the boot. Pinned between the Adriatic and Ionian seas, it is home to cactus, vineyards and millions of olive trees. We'd been to other places in Italy before, the most popular places --Rome, Venice, Florence--and loved them, but this was a trip of a different flavor. If we use a sailing analogy -- we set the 'hook' in the city of Lecce. We had rented a place there for two weeks that we'd call home. This gave us the chance to keep to a budget (sort of) by eating in for 1 or 2 meals a day and unpacking our bags. As soon as we arrived, we realized that it was going to be cooler than we anticipated. One of our first adventures was taking Dan clothes shopping in Italy on a busy Saturday.

Dan with shopping bags in hand and wearing long pants & a sweatshirt!

I wish I could have filmed the area where the men were trying on clothes. Each of the 10 or so changing rooms had 1-2 (maybe 3??) women outside energetically telling their spouse, grown child, parent, brother, boyfriend how good, awful or otherwise their clothes looked. It was loud and everyone was pointing and weighing in. It was a great 'welcome to living in Italy' experience.

Piazza del Duomo under a full moon (taken just after consuming a Pistachio Gelato!)

Our little apartment was located on the ground floor of a renovated palazzo within Lecce's historic center, just around the corner from Porto Napoli and a very busy bar (coffee in the morning, aperitivos in the afternoon). I had signed up for 4 hours of Italian language conversation classes each weekday morning. So, I walked a short 15 minutes past the university, an elementary school and a high school to get to my school. My classes were intense and had 4 other students. The others were mostly retired, mostly from Australia and most had studied Italian 20-30 years before in high school or college. I had been studying Italian only since June and was thrown in the deep end, given that 100% of the conversation was in Italian. I learned a lot and my comprehension is pretty good -- although I still have work to do to hold up my end of an entire conversation. While I was in class, Dan would walk to the grocery store, the veggie market, grab a coffee/pasticciotto (the Lecce specialty pastry often filled with Pistachio cream) and usually make us lunch. Lecce people typically have lunch between 1-3 PM.

Out for an afternoon stroll in Lecce, this once convent is now a municipal building

Everything is closed for some period of time between 2-5 PM. Around 5 or 6 PM, people often head out for their evening stroll, grab an aperol spritz (or the like) and then roll into dinner around 7 or 8 PM. A stop at the local (and favorite) gelatoria was our typical after dinner treat. Interestingly, we discovered that Lecce along with great architecture has the best Chinese food I've had since living in China (in 1992!) We went there 3 times!

The Chengdu Restaurant in Lecce Italy -- 5 out of 5 stars from us!

Leaving the city walls of Lecce behind, we went on several road trips during our stay to mix things up. We stayed in a rural resort, a family owned farm house turned b&b, a trullo, a city flat and at the end an uninteresting chain hotel right next to the airport. We had some outstanding Italian cuisine with the highlight being at the home of a young chef. We quickly learned that each little town we visited had a unique energy, state of repair (or investment) and a 'thing' of which they are proud. We had many favorites...

View from Otranto city wall overlooking the Adriatic Sea

After cruising down the Adriatic sea a bit, we crossed over to the Ionian sea and the lovely seaside town of Gallipoli. The seafood was amazing, the big beach right steps down from the historic center was picturesque and there were multiple marinas pinning in the city.

One of the many marinas in Gallipoli a stunning city on the Ionian coast

The small town of Galatina exuded pride and had a vibrant young community. While wandering through this town in the evening. We came across a wedding in progress in one square so we sat and watched as the wedding party celebrated. We were then told that there was a special church that only opens 2 days a year--and today was one of those special days. Two college age girls gave us a personal architectural tour of the church (Chiesa delle Anime Sante del Purgatorio o Madonna delle Grazie) -- entirely in almost perfect English. The church was modest, but the pride of the community in saving their historic building was memorable.

An evening stroll through Galatina on the way to dinner

Further north, Locorotondo's historic center overlooked the picturesque valley filled with vineyards and vibrant farms. This is wine country. We happened to be there during one of their religious celebrations.

The street closed for traffic while the local community gathers for a live performance of folk music.

The local church, one block away from our stone-built bed & breakfast had opened its door on Friday night. They had a band performing folk music in the street for all the neighborhood.

Not far away is the town of Alberobello. This was by far the most 'touristy' place we went but it was worth a visit to see the unique architecture found in this area. Originally roofs were built without mortar so that the buildings could be 'deconstructed' when the tax man came around.

UNESCO world heritage site of Alberobello, with a Trullo (built in 1400...)

At the end of our 3 weeks, we took the train back to Rome from the 'big' city of Bari. It was easy, comfortable and predictable. Our flight home to Panama connected through Istanbul. It was a LOOOONG day. We got up at 3:30 AM, and made it back to the boat by 1 AM the next morning. The flight from Istanbul to Panama was 14 hours.

We spent one of our last evenings in the countryside enjoying a wine tasting of regional wines from the Itria valley. Most (if not all) of the wines in this photo are made locally.

People tease us about taking a 'vacation' from 'vacation'. By definition a vacation is "an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home." I would argue that even sailors need a vacation--and many of our full time liveaboard boat friends do as we do. Heading to the other side of the world and living in a 200+ year old stone house (that is dripping with history), eating pasta (& pasticciotto & espresso & Italian wine), in temperate rainy fall weather and learning something new (Italian) for 3 weeks was definitely the alternate reality "vacation" I needed to appreciate our 52' floating home back in the heat of Panama. I think we are both sufficiently recharged for the voyages ahead. Onward.