Our plan today was a road trip through the
southernmost part of Puglia, the heel
of Italy. Our route took us along the eastern coastline. Our first stop was in Otranto, so see the church with
extensive floor mosaics. Getting there was another GPS-induced comedy of
errors, in that we have some difficulty again in getting it adopt the desired
route we could infer from our good Michelin map. The mosaics were certainly
extensive, if a little on the primitive side, but that understandable given
their age (over 1,000 years). There were a number of references along this
coast to Turkish invasions and a few memorials too. One of the plaques on a
memorial statue in Otranto graphically depicted beheadings by the Turkish
occupiers. We had an enjoyable lunch right on the harbour. An older shirtless
gentleman was fishing with three rods quite near us. We were pleased when he
caught one.
Otranto
East coast
Just before the tip of the heel was a high bridge
over a rocky inlet from the Adriatic. People had climbed down and were swimming
there in the clear waters. Some made their way to a grotto but lacked the nerve
to enter.
There wasn’t much to see at the tip, in Leuca, but it was a scenic spot.
After an uneventful drive home, we had yet
another excellent dinner – another two-bottle job. The spaghetti and green
pepper steak that three of us had were really good. A nie grappa finished off the evening out before our walk home in the
(for the first time) pleasantly cool evening.
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