So here we are on the Adriatic coping with sunshine and wine.. It is impossible to describe the beauty of this place but its awesome. The days have been hot but with that touch of cool edge of autumn that make for the most beautiful indian summer feeling. The locals are triming the olive trees and making little fires in the fields so the air has that beautiful woodsmoke smell to it.
We rode down the coast looking in at beautiful beaches and exquisite little villages until we finally made it to Otranto. The people here truely live the life of the siesta. All action in the morning and then totally quiet in the afternoons - and then everyone appears promanding in the evening. Gillie is great at ordering at the restaurants and we end up sampling the local wines and food. She does it all in Italian and they do not look confused. I have become proficient in asking where the bathrooms are.
Otranto reminds me of the village in the Tintin book "The Crab with the Golden Claws". There is a huge castle and a walled village full of curving winding streets.
Note my sexy Italian costume - somehow they still figure out that I am a tourist. The little streets lead to piazzas with beautiful churches or to the sea wall.
There is the church of the martyrs with 700 goulish skulls all preserved behind glass and an altar enclosing the stone that they were all beheaded on. Underneath there is an amazing crypt with icons and an fantastic vaulted ceiling over 1000 years old. Steve and Phillip could stand and consider for hours I am sure.
Its all a bit mind blowing. There is so much that it is hard to digest and we are finding sitting down and looking at our photos is a good way to absorb the experience. Its all in the brain but the CPU needs time to file it properly. After spending a evening promanding and a day looking we set off on our last stage of the ride 44Kms back up to Lecce. We are here safe and sound. The next few days we will explore this amazing city and then Gillie is off to her cooking class on Friday.
The way the light catches the flat faces of the buildings is very Herge from my old perspective. When we woke up this morning it was overcast and windy and rain was prophetised. But in fact the wind was behind us it was cool riding and we only experienced a few drops of rain. Here are a couple of photos taken on the road to Lecce
you are most def living the dream!! hope cooking went well!! Len Brown got Mayor! whilst your study architecture i stud law cases to the enth degree, to try and get a degree? swapsies??
ReplyDeleteEnjoy florence! it was my favourite (and sorry to disapoint you but that hunk-a-spunk david wont fit in your case either)
love you both xx