The Goths in Campania

An early morning start and two train rides took us to Salerno in the province of Campania.  The city was much larger than we expected and we discovered that our hotel room was directly over a bar where live music was scheduled that evening.  Michael and I were assured by the hotel manager that the music would not disturb us so after depositing our bags we set off for a walk around the city.  We took a lovely stroll along the Trieste Seafront Promenade and stopped for a drink at one of the bars along the way to watch the sunset. The region is famed for its seafood and Michael was eager to sample some of the local specialties.  We found a seafood restaurant and were assured by the waiter that the chef would make a non-seafood pasta dish especially for me.  A complementary appetiser arrived at our table, which was naturally fish.  I politely accepted it intending to discreetly pass it over to Michael.  Michael instead told the waiter that I don’t eat any seafood so the waiter apologised profusely and gave Michael my appetiser and told me that the chef would prepare something especially for me.  I was most embarrassed however the waiter was gone before I could protest.  Michael was happily eating both appetisers when the waiter returned and with a flourish presented me with salmon, saying “see – no seafood!”  Again I politely accepted the dish whereupon Michael told the waiter that I didn’t eat salmon.  Horrified the waiter offered his apologies again and told Michael that he could have the salmon and that the chef would prepare another dish for me.  I tried to protest but he rushed back to the kitchen.  Michael then proceeded to demolish his third appetiser.  I was then presented with a deep fried macaroni cheese ball, which whilst it sounds hideous, was quite possibly the most delicious dish I had had to that point.  The rest of the meal was lovely and we retired to our room to get a good night’s sleep.  Our sleep was somewhat delayed however, as the live entertainment that we were promised wouldn’t disturb us was so loud that the singer may as well have been in the room with us.  Actually, he was a very good singer so we weren’t too upset.

 

The next day we took a short train ride to the ancient ruins of Herculaneum.  The town was buried under 20 metres of ash when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and the city is famous for being well preserved, as the ash which covered the town actually preserved its original splendour.  We were able to see preserved wooden lofts, wine racks furniture and household shrines as well as frescoes and mosaics.  There were arched vaults where as recently as the 1980s, archaeologists discovered three hundred skeletons.  

 


 Some of these skeletons have been left where they were found and it was touching to see them lying there.  We spent over three hours wandering the streets and peering into the various shops, bars and bakeries along with the ornate atriums and central pools.  Then there were the beautiful men’s and women’s baths with lovely nautical mosaics and marble benches.  We had a terrific day and we were both impressed with just how much of the city was still intact and standing.

Up Pompeii

I can’t tell you how excited I was to be finally visiting this ancient city.  It is somewhere that I have always wanted to see ever since studying Latin in high school.  The first thing that struck both Michael and myself was the sheer size of the city.  








 It covers 66 hectares, 44 of which have been excavated.  We did our utmost to see as much as we could and we spent 7 hours clambering up and down streets, entering magnificent villas, shops, and baths and still we didn’t see everything.  There were many highlights but for me, the most impressive structure was the amphitheatre. 



 The amphitheatre was built after 70 BC and is the earliest known permanent stone amphitheatre in the Roman world.  It is huge and could seat 20,000 people.  Whilst we were there we saw a special exhibition, Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, which detailed how the band performed and recorded a documentary in the empty arena.  It was fascinating and there were testimonies from 10 boys (now men) who had sneaked unseen into the amphitheatre and watched the performance.  Now that is a story to tell the grandchildren!




There were also many, many beautiful mosaics, frescoes and statues.  The streets were wide and well laid out with huge boulders positioned so that pedestrians could use them like stepping stones to cross the streets when they were flooded for cleaning each day.  It was an enthralling glimpse into what life would have been like in those times.  There were also sophisticated aqueducts snaking around the city and there were many beautiful fountains. 






 The forum was vast and it must have been so impressive when it thronged with the populace going about their business.  

 
 The House of the Faun was a huge private residence with a copy of the statue of the Dancing Faun.  


 
It also contains the recreation of the famous Alexander Mosaic depicting the Battle of Issus.  I could go on and on about everything we saw however, what I will say, is that Pompeii lived up to my expectations and I certainly wasn’t disappointed with what I found.   

Hotel Brindisi

Michael had a final dive in the morning and then we had an interesting journey to the station in a three-wheeled taxi without seat belts.  The vehicle looked like a toy car and I wasn’t sure that it was going to make it up the hill with our combined weight and luggage.  We made it though and two trains later we arrived in Brindisi.

Brindisi is called the gateway to the East and has been a major port since the days of the Roman Empire.  We didn’t have a lot of time to explore the town as we arrived in the evening and had to leave early the following morning.  We were however, able to see the Roman Column, which marks the end of the Appian Way.  There were originally two columns however one was presented to the town of Lecce in 1666 as thanks to Sant’Oronzo for stopping the plague in Brindisi.  It would be nice to return to Brindisi to explore some of the beautiful churches and streets along with the large port.

Lecce-Puglia

Lecce-Puglia

We caught the train from Alberobello to Martina Franca where we waited 2 hours before catching our connecting train to Lecce.  Mind you, we nearly missed our train, as we didn’t realise that the single, dilapidated carriage at the station was in fact our train and it was only when Michael checked with the station-master that he told us to quickly board.  The journey was pleasant enough, passing vineyards and small farms that were curiously devoid of animal life. 

 

We arrived in Lecce in the late afternoon and a short walk took us to our hotel.  I was a little apprehensive on our arrival as the hotel was situated in a dubious looking secure compound.  We were escorted inside to discover a brand new hotel and our room was decorated in a lavish, over the top style with fake rose petals scattered over the bed and throughout the bathroom.  It was different, to say the least!

Lecce is sometimes called the Florence of the south and it is easy to see why.  The buildings are very grand with many in the process of being restored, and beautiful cobbled laneways wind between them.  We visited the Basilica di Santa Croce, a lovely Baroque church which was completed in 1695 and we also saw the remains of the Roman amphitheatre which is half buried under other monuments.  It was relaxing just walking around and admiring the sights and it was the perfect place to break our journey.

 

The Castle of Otranto

Three different trains took us from Lecce to Otranto via Zollini and Maglie (we are certainly seeing a lot of the countryside).  We dropped our bags at the hotel and then it was off to explore the city.  Otranto is a beautiful old seaside town on the Adriatic coast with lovely white sandy beaches and we enjoyed wandering around in the glorious sunshine.

 

The next day, Michael had his first dive of the trip while I relaxed in the sun.  In the afternoon we set off to visit the main purpose of our stay – the castle.  On one of our first trips to London, Michael and I attended the Terror and Wonder exhibition at the British Library where we discovered that the first Gothic novel ever written was Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto.  We both subsequently read the book, and when we saw that our trip to Puglia would take us close to the setting of the story, we decided to take a slight detour to visit the castle.  This is actually more than Horace Walpole ever did, as not only did he not visit the castle, he actually didn’t know that it existed until after he had written the novel.   

The Aragonese Castle is an imposing edifice and Michael and I enjoyed wandering the towers and rooms so much that we decided to undertake the guided tour of the subterranean chambers.  What was I thinking?  I think I got carried away with the fact that most of the novel is set in the secret passages and wanted to see them for myself.  First we were issued with a hard hat – no problem, I thought, that would just be for health and safety reasons.  Then I realised that the helmet had a miner’s lamp attached and that was when I started to feel uneasy.  We set off in single file, following our guide down a set of stairs, so far so good.  Soon it was very dark and I heard Michael hit his head and I realised that the passages were very low and were narrowing rapidly.  I was the last in line and I kept reassuring myself that as long as I kept everyone in sight I would be all right.  We kept descending steep and uneven staircases, which were carved into the rock and I soon fell behind, as I was worried about tripping in the dark.  I was mid descent of yet another set of stairs when I realised that I couldn’t see at all and that everyone had completely disappeared from view.  I stood frozen on the steps with the feeble light from my lamp flickering.  I couldn’t decide whether to return the way I had come or try to move forward.  Slowly I felt my way to the bottom of the stairs only to find that I was now in complete darkness with absolutely no clue which way to go.  I was just at the point of rising hysteria when Michael suddenly appeared and irritably asked what I was doing and to come on!  I couldn’t wait to get out of there and was so grateful when we finally climbed into the light.  My heart was thumping and my legs felt like jelly and it took a good forty minutes and a caffé corretto before my heart rate returned to normal.

 

Michael spent the next two days diving and I will turn the blog over to him to tell of his experiences.

 

My last dive in Dublin was 14c and visibility of 30 cms, so you can my image the joy of diving in 21 c water with up to 30 metres plus visibility.  The dive centre also provided 15 litre tanks so bottom time was much longer.  The dive shop said it was bit cold and the visibility was better in the summer as the water temperature gets up to 28c. On top of this dive sites selected from the port were excellent with caves to explore and a large variety of fish, moray eels, octopuses.

 

Santa Maria Di Leuca   

 

Two more train trips took us to the very pretty town of Santa Maria Di Leuca, or Leuca, as it is more commonly called.  Leuca sits on the southernmost tip of the Salento peninsula where the waters of the Adriatic Sea meet the Ionian Sea.  The tourist crowds have well and truly departed so we have the town pretty much to ourselves.  We explored the shoreline and took a walk up to the Cascata Monumentale Di Leuca, a huge man-made waterfall at the end of the Puglia aqueduct, the longest in Europe.  Mussolini was very proud of this and ordered a huge waterfall to be built and a large Roman column to be transferred from Rome and erected at the base.  It is very impressive however it wasn’t running at the time we were there.  We spent 3 nights in Leuca primarily for Michael to dive, so once again I will turn the blog over to him.

 

Due to being the off season I had to use two dive shops. One Salento Dive that was well established and I was able to enjoy some cave entry and deeper dives. The other dive shop, Gnu Diving, had started this year so took me further out into deeper water. The currents were a lot stronger as it is the mixing of the two seas.  There are limestone cliffs along the coast line that have been eroded over time so makes for an interest dive with much smaller reefs, however the nutrient rich water have a lot of fish.

 

Below the cliffs of the Cathedral they have a statue of Mary, which was lying next to the plinth to protect it from the winter storms.  Edit from Annette : I guess you could say that Michael saw the statue of the fallen Madonna with the big boobies (RIP Gorden Kaye – creator of one of the funniest characters ever known). They were a number of spots that had little shrines or markers placed around.

 

Also dived on a wreck the Tevfik Kaptan 1 which sank in 2007 with its cargo of wire that has not been removed. In 30 metres was a good clear dive and lots of marine life have made their home.

 

All were good diving experiences and well worth doing again.

Vieni A Ballare In Puglia

A very early morning flight took us to Bari on the east coast of Italy.  This was followed by a short train ride which took us into the city and then, what should have been an 8 minute walk to our hotel, turned into a half hour trek in the pouring rain.  Never mind, our hotel, Villa Romanazzi Carducci, was well worth the squelching shoes.  The modern hotel is situated in the grounds of mansion built in the 19^th century and is surrounded by beautiful gardens, fountains and a massive swimming pool. 

Luckily for us, the rain gave way to sunshine about an hour after our arrival, so we set off to explore the city.  The first thing that we noticed was the massive Norman castle, Castello Svevo built in 1132 by King Roger II.  We didn’t enter the castle as it was already late in the afternoon, however we did walk around the imposing structure.   




We did, however, visit the Basilica di San Nicola, a lovely church built between 1087 and 1197 and supposedly the repository for he remains of Saint Nicholas.  We viewed the tomb of Saint Nicholas in the crypt, however one wonders whose remains are interred there as only in the last week a tomb has been unearthed beneath a church in Demre, Antalya, which is now believed to hold the saint’s remains.  It was still an impressive tomb regardless.  We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the old city before dining in our hotel, as we were starting to feel the effects of our early start.

I Trulli Di Alberobello

I would have loved to have had a swim in the hotel pool however, in true Italian style, the pool did not open until 10.00am which was the exact time that we had to leave to catch our train to Alberobello.  


 The train journey took two hours winding its way through the countryside resplendent with olive trees and grapevines.

Michael had wanted to visit Alberobello as he had read about the village in a book on Puglia.  The village is famous for its unique trulli buildings (small, limestone conical dry wall structures).  The trulli of Alberobello have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1996.  The room we stayed in was a 16^th century trullo, situated in the middle of hundreds of other trulli.  The only modification undertaken on our trullo was the addition of a bathroom.  It was very comfortable and cosy.

Walking around the village was fascinating as the narrow lanes wound their way through streets lined with these unique buildings.  There were many shops selling everything from ceramics, biscuits and pasta.  There were a number of bars and snack stops along with several restaurants so there was plenty for us to see and do.  

 

We dined that night at Trullo d’Oro and I enjoyed the local specialties of orecchiette and Negroamaro.  The Festival of Light was being held whilst we were there and it was lovely walking around the town, viewing the different light displays.  The best that we saw was an ever-changing projection on the white washed walls of the largest trullo.  There was everything from stars and planets to fish and coral and scenes from Escher.  

 

We spent the next day visiting a couple of small museums including the Museum del Territorio which showed how the trulli were built and the Olive Oil museum (self explanatory).  We kept trying to view the Basilica of the Saints Cosma and Damiano however the doors were closed each time we tried.  Finally in the evening we could see a large crowd entering the church so we joined the end of the queue.  To my absolute horror, the church bells chimed and security stopped everyone entering the church after Michael and I.  We could not retreat and so had to shuffle forward into the packed church while the full mass started (in Italian of course).  We kept moving slowly forward until we could see the exit and then inched our way towards the door desperate to escape what was going to be a very long mass.  We finally made it outside but I had been so intent on escaping, that I hadn’t looked around the church.  Michael told me that it was very beautiful so I guess I will just have to take his word.