another day on the coast of italy

on this day, we stopped in Otranto for a bit. (when you pronounce it, put the emphasis on the 'O' - so, OOOtranto). this is the town just a few miles away from k & h's town. its right on the ocean and still protected by the remains of the castle walls. it reminded me of jamestown a tiny bit. we ate some more doughy, cheesy goodness. then hit the road. we traveled over to Gallipoli, a lovely little island town, on the other side of the heel of the boot. we got there during nap time, so while nothing was open for awhile, we just walked around the town and looked at the water. we tried to find a fountain. but found an open bar/cafe instead. beer then cafe, another beer then more cafe.

then we arrived at the open fish market, just as the guys were carrying buckets of seafood off of their boats. the fish were all moving a bit too much for me so i watched from a distance. it was so great to see though, they just live off the sea and land. whatever is there, that is what you eat. its a shame i don't like seafood...

kevin led yet another excellent italian meal. we ate until we couldn't really move. then we all went to beerbonti. it only took an hour for kevin to be on the microphone and mike to find a guitar on stage.


the mod squad in front of a really old church


the castle in Oootranto



awww, we're so cute, aren't we? (kevin, look, those green bottles.)

day three - coastal tour

the sun was shining. we all jumped into the tiny car with a huge picnic packed and headed for the coast and to the tip of Southern Italy, St. Maria di Leucca. it was the best day - well, one of them. we just kept seeing beautiful and interesting things so we stopped and explored the whole way. we found a cave (grotto zinzulusa). there were shrimp from the dinosaur age, with no eyes. or something like that. we made it all the way to the tip, basically, Africa was below us. we made it just in time for a picnic at sunset. it was the best picnic. just sitting on the rocks and looking out at the two seas, just taking it all in. later on, we had pizza night out in Giudignano.
comè se dicè...what a day...




it was sunny in our eyes, but i love our faces in this shot.



from inside the cave



our picnic above Africa just before sunset



feeling blissful

day two italia 3.14.07

allora, after a long day in amsterdam, we caught a flight to rome and a midnight train to lecce. i woke up some time in the early morning, maybe 5 or 6 am (we didn't have watches) and began to fall in love with the landscape out the window. green, mountains, valleys, flowers, grape vines, lemon trees, orange trees, and ahhh, the olive trees.

we made it to lecce at 9am and hoped that kevin and holly got the message. i heard a car "beep beep beep" and our southern italy adventure began. since we were now on italian time, we began right away. first up: lecce and all of its fine, old spots. and the bird that said "ciao."

later, we made it to giudignano (i still can't pronounce it right). we had a dinner party with giorgio and mariegracie. kevin did it up salento style - the amazing food, the many many courses, and the eating til 1am. then we ate cake made by giorgio's mom.






our first glimpe at the turquoise sea

32 x 2

a temporary break from the Italia bloggin' for a moment - m. and i went to ithaca for the weekend to celebrate his b-day. m. showed me some memory lane hot spots. we took seneca for some major waterfall swimming. and m. took me wine tasting, my first time, and a lovely picnic up on a hill...life's getaways...

day one. mar 13.07

i am going to create a little travel journal here, with a post for each day of our trip.

day one. we flew overnight and missed our connecting flight in amsterdam. so...we had 10 hours to wander around town. it was my first time there, though m. has been a few times. we were extremely tired from not really sleeping, but we still managed to fit in a long walk around for hours, a few caffeine stops and a beer. just as we were about to collapse from being so tired, we found a boat ride on the canals. it was perfect. we could sit and still see the city. m. fell asleep for a little bit!







we got into the center of amsterdam before 8am so it was a bit foggy at first.

back from the heel of the boot

in lecce...after a day in amsterdam and a 7 hour train from rome, kevin and holly picked us up in lecce and so we began...

more pictures will be here shortly. mike and i have about 300 collectively, so we will have to pick the top favs for your viewing.

xo

flight plans

we are going to italy!!