“Evidently, the God of the Jews didn’t know Puglia, otherwise he wouldn’t have given his people Palestine as the Promised Land.” – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Puglia (1194 to 1250 AD).
Posted in Beaches, Europe, Food, History, Hotels, Italy, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Alberobello, Bari, Culture, Italian Driving, Italian Siesta, Italian Taxi Drivers, Lecce, Life, Ostuni, Polignano a Mare, Puglia, Trenitalia
I don’t understand why people go to a place like Cleethorpes for a holiday. The weather is unreliable, the sea is permanently cold and everything is expensive. Really expensive. Half an hour in the amusement arcade can take a heavy toll on the wallet, the funfair isn’t cheap, there are the pointless rides to contend with and then the donkeys. £2.50 for a five minute one hundred yard trudge up the beach hardly represents good value for money in my book.
It is surely so much better to get a cheap flight to Spain, send the children to the kids’ club and sit in the sun and drink cheap San Miguel and almost certainly spend less money.
I often feel an urge to walk across to point this out to people as they sit shivering behind a wind-break or sheltering under an umbrella being turned inside out by the wind, but of course I never do.
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More posts about Cleethorpes…
Three Trains – Cleethorpes, Amusement Arcades and the English Pier
Three Trains – I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside!
Not surprisingly Italy is the country with the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites; it has fifty-three, seven more than Spain which has the second most sites in Europe. I have visited half of the sites in Spain but when I reviewed the Italy list I was disappointed to find that I have been to less than a quarter.
This time in Italy I was planning to add a few more, Milan (The Last Supper), Modena and Ferrara.
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The main square was just as busy as our first night in Bari with a tsunami of people coming in waves into the old town and then just walking backwards and forwards like an Atlantic tide.
This was the passeggiata where local people descend on the town at dusk and just walk and sometimes stop to talk. Some people had bought fold up garden chairs and were just sitting and chatting, others were playing cards, some were hanging around the bars but mostly they were just walking up and down and backwards and forwards, this way and that.
We enjoyed this, wandering aimlessly around and around in a never ending loop as though being caught in a whirlpool and being sucked ever close to the centre, it was rather like being part of local carnival and we knew that if we came back tomorrow then we could take part all over again.
Posted in Europe, Food, History, Italy, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Bari Italy, Culture, Life, passeggiata, Puglia, Weekly Photo Challenge
Empty Vegetable Boxes, Alberobello, Puglia in Italy
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Europe, Food, History, Italy, Literature, Postcards, Travel
Tagged Alborobello, Culture, Life, Photography, postaday, Puglia, Weekly Photo Challenge
On account of the thousand or so Trulli houses and because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site Alberobello is vulnerable to severe tourist overload so Kim’s plan was to get up early to beat the crowds and go and get some photographs of empty streets
We debated this before lights out and I suggested seven o’clock and Kim said six which I said was too early, so we agreed on seven and Kim set the alarm for six! Which was too early because it was still dark so we turned off the alarm, went back to sleep and woke at about eight; a perfect compromise.
Posted in Europe, History, Hotels, Italy, Literature, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Alberobello, Culture, Life, Ostuni, Photography, Puglia, Trulli House, Weekly Photo Challenge
Early morning was a good time to be visiting Bari Vecchia where the residents of the crooked streets were preparing for the day ahead. Washing lines were being loaded and cranked into position high up across the alleys and lanes and strung outside windows like bunting as though in anticipation of a parade or a carnival, stretching across the streets, smelling sweetly of soap powder, dripping indiscriminately and swaying gently backwards and forwards above the secret doorways and back alleys.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, Food, History, Italy, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Bari, Culture, Life, Photography, Puglia, Santa Clause, St Nicholas
