Lilla Travels

It’s our last full day in the region of Puglia, and of this latest Italian adventure.

We began with breakfast of croissants from Dentoni, melon, figs from Fabrizio’s family’s farm, and cappuccinos. Big D also had a bowl of cereal and toast with jam. Fabrizio’s mother gave us a container of figs for the beach and we gifted her one of the huge Amalfi lemons Antonella gave us earlier in the trip. We enjoyed the other Amalfi lemon from Antonella when we were in Alberobello.

We spent the day at the i Carabei beach club again, dancing in the water with the instructors and 100+ other Italians, participating in games on the beach, and relaxing in the sun. Fabrizio and his girlfriend were also at the beach, so we discussed their dreams for a holiday in the U.S..

Our final dinner of the trip was at Bakè, where the speciality is spaghetti alla scolie (spaghetti with mussels, octopus, calamari, langostines, sepia and shrimp) prepared in a big pan. Miss M enjoyed the mussels and shrimp, even the pasta in the fishy sauce. Big D had spaghetti with butter.

We did a final passagiata over to Dentoni for gelato (Nutella freddo, caffe, fiore di latte, hazelnut, dark chocolate) and picked up some croissants to have on our early morning flight. We then went to a festival happening in the plaza two blocks from our B&B with local vendors selling meats, cheeses, lotions, honey, jams and taralle. There was live jazz and people strolling about with glasses of wine and beer.

I’ll now pass the pen to Paul to wrap up this blogpost:

We’ve mentioned our host here, Fabrizio. He is only the final example of how incredibly diverse and unconventional the Italian people are. I arrived reading a book called “The Italians” by John Hooper. Karen is reading it now. One of the themes of the book is that things do not always appear as they seem in Italy. The idea of a certain Italian look, or attire, or music, isn’t necessarily what you might think before you come here. We have experienced so many examples from the beach music going from Italian pop to Led Zeppelin to American pop to Elvis and The Beach Boys. The Blues Brothers is the all-time favorite movie of Carlo Spada from Pico. Long trunks or banana hammock, fully tatted or impeccably dressed, loud and boisterous or serene and pensive, Italians come in all shapes and sizes (see pic of Fabrizio), just like the rest of us. What makes them special might be their unique zest for life and all it offers. It was a joy to experience it again.

It has been over three weeks since I touched down in Italy for the 6th(!) time. I arrived 4 days ahead of Karen and the kids and spent my time in Pico, the town that my great grandparents (my maternal grandmother’s parents) were born in.

I stayed at Nenà al Borgo Castello, a bed and breakfast owned and run by Carlo Spada. I met Carlo by chance when my family and I stopped by Pico six years ago, just to see it. What we discovered that day, and what prompted me to return, was that Pico has a gorgeous medieval borgo, perched on a hill and nestled among the Monti Aurunci, a regional park area. It is beautiful.

In theory, part of the motivation to go to Pico was anchored in looking at the past…..to see if I could uncover any more information about my great grandparents and if we had any remaining relatives. In reality, this visit became a testament of enjoying the moment, the here and now, and (maybe) the future. Through Carlo I met many people and made friends. I also enjoyed the company of friends who lived in Belmont (Big D and their son were soccer teammates. They have since returned to Rome, but vacation at Formia, about a 40 minute drive from Pico).

I spent my first night out with Carlo and my now friend Raffaella. I promised Carlo I’d keep it secret, but basically we went a few towns away and ate one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had, made by one of the best pizzaiolos in all of Italy, whom I also got to meet.

The next day I spent the morning in Pico, at the comune and at the cemetery. At the cemetery I was trying to find the graves of my great-great grandparents. I know only their names and surnames. The thing is, there are so many common surnames in Pico. My great grandmother’s surname “Carnevale” is as common in Pico as “Smith” is in the US. In fact I found as many as eight “Maria Domenica Carnevale’s” with different birth and death dates. Of course, my great grandmother is buried in Rhode Island, so that didn’t really help. I was, and continue to be, convinced that my great-great grandparents must be there, but alas I didn’t find them. There are a number of unmarked spots. However, it was a rewarding experience nonetheless. I then explored Sperlonga, a beautiful beach town north of Gaeta, im the afternoon. The drive there, through the Aurunci mountains, was spectacular. That night I went to dinner with my friends from Belmont and their children in Gaeta.

The next day, I had a choice: explore some more of the surrounding area or stay all day for the 40th annual “Rally di Pico”. I say “all or none” because the Rally is a timed car race and the streets would be closed all day and night. It was an easy choice, especially when Raffaella invited Carlo and I to her apartment which has two balconies overlooking the main road and a 150 degree corner that the cars would zip around. I met many of Raffaella’s relatives and friends and it was a lot of fun. After one of the best porchetta sandwiches for dinner, I watched more of the Rally and made even more friends.

On Sunday, I returned to Formia and spent the day with my Belmont friends and some of their friends and family. Formia is known for wind surfing and Luca taught me the basics. I was able to get on the board, steer a bit, and even make a turn!

After some pizza for dinner, i joined Carlo for a few drinks at the Castle Pub. The pub is owned by 2 sisters and only opens seasonally. It is a charming spot, at the very top of the borgo and adjacent, appropriately, to the Castello. It was a perfect spot to end my stay, in the company of my friend and the land of my ancestors.

While Puglia has been a feast for the senses, there’s definitely been a lot that’s made our ears perk up this leg of the trip:

If there’s one word Miss M and I have heard a lot on this trip, it’s “allora” which means “and then” or “so then.” (Pronounced ah-LORE-ah.) Whether it’s the event hosts at the various evening festivals, a child playing at the beach, or our B&B hit, it is used ALL the time. It’s not unique to Puglia, but it is a very lyrical sounding word. Miss M and I chuckle every time we hear it.

We hear seccadas in this part of Italy. Paul said they were almost deafening in Pico. And then there’s the rustling in the bushes from the geckos. Occasionally we see them running up or down the stone walls.

We’ve seen Fabrizio’s parents a few times at the B&B. His mother always comments (in Italian) how beautifully bronze our children are. Miss M and Big D were already very tan after being at sleep away camp for two weeks before this trip. After almost three weeks in Italy they are even darker. Their dark skin even sticks out on the Italian beaches, which says a lot. Fabrizio’s mother also greets us with “Salve!” (Hello) which makes Miss M smile since she knows the greeting from Latin class.

At the beach, there is the distinct sound of people blowing up inflatable air mattresses and floatation devices. And in the towns at dusk we hear birds chirping and flying about, similar to the hundreds of birds I remember from our trip to Siena years ago.

Whether it’s the radio or at the beach club, we’ve heard a lot of 80s and 90s tunes redone in English, with a voice that reminds me of Suzanne Vega or slow jazz renditions. There was an interesting remake of Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight. And we’ve heard a lot of Lenny Kravitz’s Low.

The music at the beach club is eclectic too. This morning the DJ played Depeche Mode’s Can’t Get Enough (pronounced Can’t Get A-no”), an Italian pop song in English, then AC/DC’s Thunderstruck (pronounced Ah-C-D), then Led Zepplin. Then calisthenics in the water led by some of the beach club crew to more Italian pop. I’ve been Shazaming a lot. After 5pm the music turned to American classics from the 1950s.

We began the day enjoying another yummy breakfast of croissants and figs while our host Fabrizio told us more about football in Italy. We saw his father, Giovanni, hop on his old rusty bike, with basket, again. Yesterday he was biking to get peaches (even though there was a pile at the table) and not sure what today’s grocery run was for but off he went.

Torre dell’Orso is not a picturesque town like everything else we’ve seen on this trip. It’s entire existence is in support of the gorgeous beach. The concrete buildings are two or three stories tall, and painted white or beige. Lots of palm trees. But the location of the B&B is perfect with only four other people as guests who we’ve seen each morning at breakfast.

This morning we went to the city of Lecce which is often called “the Florence of the South” because of its baroque architecture. Every way we turned there were beautiful buildings, ornate balconies and doorways, and probably at least a dozen churches. We also found Givenchy in a Coin store. Miss M and I always like to find the fragrances during our trips and take a pic to share with Auntie Diane.

Lunch was at South East Cafe where Miss M had Greek yogurt with fruit, and the rest of us had sandwiches with Lecce’s typical bread called puccia.

We spent the afternoon swimming at Grotta della Poesia (Cave of Poetry) where the main attraction is jumping off the cliffs into the Grotta or the ocean. We could swim from one grotto to the next, and into a cave where the blue of the water rivaled what people pay money to see at Capri’s blue grotto. There were two ways to get into the water: climb down a set of narrow slippery stairs carved into the side of the rocks, or jump. As the afternoon progressed, the boys mustered up the courage to jump from the highest point.

In the evening we went to Otranto which is known for its picturesque sunsets. The road to the point overlooking the sea was closed so a sunset wasn’t in the cards for us tonight.

The old city of Otranto is at the port, so for dinner we ate at Il Cantico die Cantici where we had gnocchi with mussels and clams while the kids had spaghetti with butter (the first of the trip.) Not the best meal we had but it did the trick.

After walking around Otranto a bit, we headed back to Torre Dell’Orso for gelato from Dentoni (Nutella freddo, coffee, praline and bacio.)

Fabrizio, our host at his family’s B&B, gave us a lovely breakfast of croissants from Dentoni (the Pasticceria we ate every meal at yesterday), cereal, watermelon, a white melon that is a cross between honeydew and cucumber, gigantic figs from their garden, and prickly pear fruit from their garden. We spent over an hour talking with Fabrizio, and it turns out he played (American) football for one of Italy’s teams years ago. I say this in the nicest way: he’s a big dude. Very sweet, and very interested in American sports. He wanted us to speak English with him so he could practice, but we want him to speak Italian so Paul can practice! He said he misses playing football and gets motivated listening to music. He showed Big D a video on his phone that D had seen before — it’s sack after sack. They bonded over the love of tackling.

He then escorted us to the beach club since we’re using his two chairs and one umbrella for the day. It’s a very desirable location in the front half of the beach club. To put it in perspective, there are 12 rows of at least 20 umbrellas with at least two chairs per umbrella, so when it’s at capacity this club has 500+ people. This isn’t the only club on the beach, so when I told you the beach was packed but doesn’t feel crowded, I wasn’t kidding! They’ve had a DJ playing music all morning, staffers coordinating dance lessons and games in the water, and an elementary school aged camp. The afternoon was quiet, but the music started up again around 5pm.

Paul walked up the path that takes you to the top of the cliff so he could see the “two sisters” rock formation from above.

We got pizza slices from the beach club for lunch and the kids had Oreo cookie ice cream sandwiches. Big D thought he was ordering a frozen coffee drink in the late afternoon but ended up with ice coffee. He also has his first espresso the other night and is now very into the effects of caffeine.

Dinner tonight was at Soul Food. Don’t let the name fool you — the soul food is Italian seafood. We started with the raw and smoked appetizer plate which included shrimp over a bed of eggplant, tuna and potatoes, smoked langoustines and shrimp, and some type of raw fish over local cheese. It was very fishy but Paul and I enjoyed it. Big D had mezzo pacchero (pasta with pesto, tuna and roasted tomatoes), Miss M had a salad, Paul had spaghetti with clams, mussels, sepia and calamari, and I had fried calamari.

There was another performance at the stage near the beach tonight. This time: 25 operatic singers with a piano accompanist. More gelato for Paul and the kids from Dentoni and we called it a night!

Today we began the third leg of our trip in Torre dell’Orso, a beach town in the southern Italian region of Puglia on the Salento coast.

We met Fabrizio and his father Giovanni as we checked into our bed & breakfast one block from the beach. A very kind host, he was excited to practice his English with us and show us around the unit. Our room has a double bed, two twins beds, a sizable bathroom and we share a huge patio with the people in the next room.

We spent at least five hours at the beach, enjoying the crystal clear warm water and soft sand – a big change from navigating the hot or often slippery rocks to get into the water that we experienced further north on the Adriatic. I’ve never experienced water so clear before, even in the Caribbean.

The stretch of beach was packed — every beach club and Spiaggia Libera (public beach) as well. Despite the number of people on the sand, and umbrellas open at the clubs, the water didn’t feel crowded since we could walk out around 100 feet before it began to get deep. It’s amazing how shallow the water was until we reached the rocks (which the kids jumped off of) where it was very deep.

We had lunch/dinner/gelato at Pasticceria Dentoni, overlooking the beach. An assortment of pastries, finger sandwiches, more pastries, olives, and gelato — we picked on things throughout the afternoon / night and opted to skip sitting down for a meal today.

Around 10pm we caught a group of girls (elementary and middle school aged) performing rhythmic gymnastics on one of several stages near the beach. Performances starting at 10pm are the norm here, and similar to what we experienced with the folk festival in Alberobello, the girls performed one opening number, and then there was 30+ minutes of formalities on stage (people being invited up to speak, presentation of certificates, thanking sponsors, etc.). Then they performed a second number and another 30 minutes of congratulations remarks and fireworks. After one hour, we had our fill and it was time for bed.

We’re about to leave Alberobello, so here’s a few observations about our experience here:

Milk – our kids love milk and Grandma Mary Ann always said we should buy a cow for our backyard. In Italy, no one drinks milk. One day I bought all three liters sold at the market in Alberobello, wiping out their supply. Big D has requested cold “latte” at a few restaurants and had the funniest looks and giggles from waitresses.

Brands — I’ve seen a lot of kids wearing the Pyrex sporting goods brand and Big D commented on all the boys wearing Levi’s shirts. (He pronounced it lee-viss, not knowing it was an American brand and therefore desirable by teens in Italy.) I’ve seen the occasional Supreme shirt and shorts, and read that Italy has a big counterfeit market due to the copyright laws. I’d happily buy counterfeit Supreme if I can find it!

Older people – there are a lot of short, older people in Alberobello and the surrounding towns. A lot of old men and women just sitting around, mostly in the shade avoiding the heat. We’ve gone out to dinner, and then returned several hours later only to see the same group of older people sitting in the same spot, people watching and chatting with each other.

Big D said “I know why Italians are so short, they don’t drink milk and they don’t sleep enough!” (because they are up all night strolling around.)

I love watching them watch everyone else. I’ve tried to be inconspicuous and take some of pics of them.

These were from Minori but I am including them anyway:

While driving to various towns, the view has been a combination of fields of olive trees, farms with horses, donkeys or cows, fields of fruit trees, or farms that have already harvested their goods since its rows and rows of dirt.

As we get closer to the water, we see grapevines. Sometimes the rows and rows of grapevines are covered with netting or plastic sheets, and thanks to google we now know that those are grapes that will be harvested in the late fall, and it’s best for the grapes to not take on too much rain water within six weeks of harvesting.

(We think these are table grapes)

(Plums that aren’t yet ripe)

More grapevines:

Limestone walls line the sides of the roads and are also used as property lines. I bet an arial view of Puglia would look like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s very pretty to drive through.

There are a lot of fig trees in the area, some just growing wild out of the sides of rocks, but majority without the fig fruit. Google says it’s because they don’t get enough water.

A side note about cypress trees: I love them. Every trip to Italy I think about how nice it would be to have cypress trees line our driveway at home. On this trip, we noticed the cemetery in Minori, perched high on the cliff, had beautiful cypress trees surrounding it. Paul tells me the cemetery in Pico was similar. And we’ve now seen several cemeteries in Puglia, and can pick them out on our drives through the region by the tell tale grouping of cypress trees.

Thanks to google, I now know that cypress trees are known as mourning trees and were planted as far back as the ancient Greeks to signify the location where someone has died.

(Pretty sure we have pics of the cemetery in Minori on the good camera so I’ll update this post in a few days with pics.)

Finally, a special thanks to Bob and Anne (hi guys!) for letting us borrow their GPS. It’s been invaluable as we’ve navigated this landscape every day, exploring the region. It’s navigated us up and over the mountains, often a different route even if we are going to the same destination, but it’s always brought us to where we need to go. The only time it struggled, and so did the rental car GPS, was when we went to Vesuvius since the volcano’s crater doesn’t have an exact address. We’ve named the GPS, Stefano.

What does a married couple do on the morning of their anniversary? Visit the laundromat! The Alberobello lavanderia is nothing like the places we frequented in college, NYC or Somerville. This one had free WiFi, a charging station for mobile devices, an exercise bike and treadmill, plus a vending machines for snacks and espresso! We didn’t even need to use our own detergent since the machines came with it already. Super easy!

After walking around Alberobello, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach club we enjoyed earlier in the week: Lido Ottagono. We swam in the water, jumped off the rocks and enjoyed the sun. Miss M learned how to dive off the rocks.

Being Sunday, the beach club was much more crowded than it was in the middle of the week. We ended up sitting in the section reserved for families with dogs, which was fine with us! The dogs, of all sizes, were so cute, resting in the shade under their owner’s loungers. All the dogs had large bowls of water and were well behaved. Some owners cooled down their small dogs in the octagonal outdoor showers (which are used frequently throughout the day since the water is so salty.)

Tonight we drove back to Matera, where we began this leg of the trip almost one week ago. Matera during the day is very different than Matera at night. The day we visited, Miss M and I were so hot, and the only shade is provided by the tunneled passageways or umbrellas at cafes. Tonight Matera was the perfect temperature, beautifully lit to showcase the tiered residences, churches, as well as the restaurants and cafes nestled into the rocks. And there were people everywhere – strolling and eating gelato and having dinner and socializing. It was so lively, I lost count of the number of piazzas filled with people. Paul called it “hauntingly beautiful” like being on a movie set.”

We had buffalo mozzarella, pizza, marinated steak filet with peaches and a wine reduction, and french fries for dinner at “Oi Mari”, because, well, it’s obvious, right?

Paul and I have been married for 18 years and known each other for 27, but he continues to surprise me. Several months ago he planned a wonderful evening for us, as a surprise for me, to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Dinner at Grotta Palazzese in Pogliano a Mare — a gorgeous restaurant in a grotto.

All I knew was that we had dinner reservations for our anniversary, and nothing more. Paul parked the car and a driver wishing us “auguri” (congratulations) brought us to the location, we checked in with the maitre’d, and walked down four flights of candlelit stairs to the sea. A gorgeous setting, approximately 50 candlelit tables along the sea and in the cave overlooking the grotto. A saxophonist performed all night, and at the table next to us, there was a marriage proposal. The food was very good, and the service attentive.

We drove back to Alberobello and the kids didn’t burn down the trullo, so the night was a huge success!

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And now for menu updates from Paul:

We decided to go with one of the restaurant’s tasting menus.

We started with Yellowfin red tuna tartare, then seared sea scallops served over beet root cream and pistachio.

Our primi was Calamarata pasta with amatriciana sauce, monkfish, crispy bacon and pecorino. Our secondi was a sea bass. And finally, we ended with dark chocolate bon bons.

It was all beautifully presented and very good. I’ve often remarked to Karen how lucky we are. Some of that is simply being in the right place at the right time and taking advantage of those opportunities. To be able to take Karen out to one of the most beautiful restaurants in the world on our anniversary was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. It did not disappoint.

We spent today in the town of Molfetta, which isn’t known for its cultural or historical significance. It’s about a half hour north of the city of Bari but it had two things going for it: an outlet mall and an amusement park…..next to each other.

I spent a few hours at Puglia Outlet Village, and the kids and Paul enjoyed the rides at Miragica. Miragica is on the scale of Canobie Lake Park, maybe a little smaller. It could use a face lift but did the job for today.

We had burgers and fries for lunch at Old Wild West, shopped for a bit more, the kids did a few more rides, and then we headed back to Alberobello.

A quick pit stop on the highway at a full service gas station is always a must. There’s always a large wine selection, candies and cookies, beach toys, and an espresso bar. Pay at the register and bring your ticket to the counter for a tiny cup of goodness. This gas station also had a selection of taralle, the small cracker biscuits that are from this region. We’ve been snacking on a lot of taralle, and at dinner we often get a basket of bread which also has a dozen or so taralle in it too.

The kids love taralle, and in the past Grandma Mary Ann has found snack size bags of taralle for the kids to bring to school.

Tonight Paul and I are leaving the kids in Alberobello and heading out to dinner to celebrate our 18th anniversary. Don’t know where we are going — Paul has planned a surprise for the night. The kids are super excited to have a night to themselves. They are very comfortable in Alberobello and they are excited to go out for gelato on their own after Miss M cooks them a spaghetti dinner.

Today we did something we’ve all wanted to do since planning this trip: cliff diving in Polignano a Mare. Polignano a Mare is known as “the pearl of the Adriatic” and it is indeed a gem. A 40 minute drive from Alberobello brought us to the beach town packed with people. We went to the popular spot that Paul had researched before the trip. It was called Spiaggia Cala Porta Lama Molachile, and it didn’t disappoint.

There are two options for getting into the water. Option 1: walk down the pebbly beach, navigate the slippery rocks at the shore and try to keep your balance as the waves crash in. Option 2: walk through a small cave with shallow water and then jump into the sea.

Once in the water, there are waves crashing against the rocks and the water is clear and deep – occasionally you can see fish swimming by. We saw a crab and several sea urchins.

The main attraction is cliff jumping, and there are people doing it at all different heights. Red Bull hosted the international cliff diving competition here last year and there were some professionals jumping at amazing heights.

(Zoom in. Yes, that’s Big D flying through the air.)

For lunch, Paul waited over an hour to get takeaway fish from the popular La Pescaria: fried octopus sandwich, homemade chips, fried vegetables, and I had a grilled swordfish burger with parsley, tomato, fresh mozzarella, cappicola, basil pesto, chopped pistachios, lemon oil…it was delicious. The kids had pizza leftovers, some snacks we brought from Alberobello, and they split a ham, tomato and cheese sandwich we bought near the beach. Neither kid wanted the focaccia with green olives and roasted tomatoes.

We hung out at the beach almost into the evening, as Big D didn’t want to stop jumping. (Tried including a video below.)

We changed clothes and walked around the old town, enjoying some gelato. We also saw the statue of Polignano’s most famous son, Domenico Modugno. You may not know his name, but you know the song he composed, “Volare”.

We settled in for dinner at Casa Mia in one of the main piazzas. Miss M and I had salads, Big D with a Margherita pizza and Paul with stuffed pasta with cheese and tomatoes.

This morning while the boys shot hoops, I went to the market, the bakery (cream and chocolate filled croissants for Paul and I, donuts filled with Nutella and frutti di bosco for the kids). Mari and I also visited the outdoor market that comes to Alberobello every Thursday: stall after stall of clothes, Puma sneakers, linens, pillows, rugs, even bathrobes.

We drove to Masseria Brancati, an olive farm and oil producer ten minutes outside Ostuni. Pietro gave us a tour of the farm and the cellar where the ancient Greeks, ancient Romans and more modern producers with horses stored olives and pressed oil. It wasn’t until the 1950s when olive oil was produced in sterile truly modern facilities. The family who has owned the farm since the 1880s has preserved the environment for an authentic and educational experience versus turning it into a b&b, agritourismo or spa. We learned a lot about olive trees and production. For example, there are 55 million olive trees in the region of Puglia producing 15% of the worlds olive oil. One tree dated back 3,000+ years. They call it “The Grandfather.”

In Ostuni we had sandwiches and salads for lunch at La Gilda and then strolled around the all white city. Even the cats blended in with all the white. Everywhere we turned there was beautiful architecture and details.

We took a quick trip over to Spiaggia Pozzelle — a public beach with sand (versus rocks.) Even though we didn’t have our suits it was nice to just to put our feet in the water and climb on the lunar-esque rocks along the bay. We noticed this beach and others had fruit trucks at the entrance, unlike the ice cream trucks we see in the states.

Back in Alberobello we had dinner at Ristorante Il Pinnacolo. It came recommended to us, and the place was packed. The service was horrible and the food was OK. We started with scamorzina con pancetta al forno (balls of scamorza cheese wrapped in pancetta and baked in the oven into melty goodness.) Big D had orechette pasta with meat sauce, Paul has orechette with broccoli rabe, Miss M had margherita pizza (again) and my pizza had sausage, prosciutto cotto, mushrooms and arugula.

Tonight kicked off the four day 35th International Folklore Festival in Alberobello. We’ve seen little kids wearing trullo hats singing songs and reciting poems about the local history, a group of folk singers and dancers. Miss M and Paul are still watching the show in the city center while Big D and I called it a night.

This morning we found a basketball court in Alberobello. All over Italy Big D has been dribbling the ball he brought from home. He got a few stares in Minori but even more so here, because our trullo is located on a quiet street. But only a short 10 minute walk and we found the court. We shot around a bit and played two-on-two in the hot sun.

Paul made us antipasto for lunch and then we hit the road towards the Adriatic coast hoping to find a beach town where we could rent an umbrella and some chairs for the afternoon. We stumbled upon Ottagano Lido outside of Monopoli, about one hour south of Bari. While it was more expensive compared to what we experienced in Minori, this was more of a full service beach club: there was an army of men working there, one carried my beach bag for me to the chairs and there were two types of floatation devices we could use in the water. We were in the ocean for less than five minutes and Big D was already asking if we could return here tomorrow. He spent hours jumping off the diving board into the sea as small fishes swam around us and waves crashed on the rocks. All four of us went off the diving board eventually (and I say eventually since it took awhile for me to muster up the courage.) We were rewarded with yummy aperol spritzes which I have been drinking every day that we’ve been in Italy.

Back in Alberobello we ate dinner — our best meal of the trip so far — at Trattoria Terra Madre (Mother Earth.) The farm-to-table restaurant is focused primarily on a variety of vegetable dishes, everything fresh from their gardens. We sat under the grapevine and next to the eggplant and pepper plants while we were served a dozen dishes.

Here’s some pics of what we ate:

Shaved zucchini with local cheese and a balsamic glaze; Carrot and zucchini spiral “spaghetti”

A terrine of cheese, green bean and tomatoes; cucumber and green tomato salad

roasted peppers on a purée of parsnip

Roasted red peppers, a cheese and pesto filled crepe with squash flowers

Sweet potato and mushrooms with sprouts; roasted baby potatoes

Roasted potatoes; eggplant and local cheese

rabbit with squash flowers on potato purée

Whole wheat strascinate (pasta) with cacioricotta cheese, tomatoes, basil

The kids picked on the vegetables and had pasta with butter and red sauce. It was an beautiful setting and an even better meal.

Of course, the night wouldn’t be complete without gelato. Our flavors were: fiore di latte (cream), penguino, marscapone, amarena, and chocolate fondante.