Italy 2011

It was so good we had to have it again

The tourist office woman in Ostuni didn’t speak a word of English, maybe she know some other languages. But Wynette did pretty well with her Italian, maybe. We wanted to see some stores so she showed us on the map where a shopping center was. We went out there and found a very fancy area of very expensive houses — and no shopping center, but we had a good time.

It was hard to get a good picture here but this house at the “trulli” shaped roof that this region is famous for. We saw lots more the next day on the way to and at Cisternino.

There was a Hindu retreat, based in Brindisi but with a pretty nice place here in Ostuni.

Lots of nice places

and a very calm cat:

flowers;

More nice places

and cross that might have been a tower wire tower, behind the cat

and some who didn’t get the memo that everything had to be white.

Ostuni is 6 km from the Adriatic. The beach town is called Villanova. We heard you can walk there. We took the bus down there, it took 25 minutes, hardly anyone on it. The driver let us off at this beach. There were two people there and no one else around for blocks.

just this little beach. We had planned to have lunch. We walked around and found we were in a large block of what seemed to be beach rentals. Too early in the season, no one was around. We found a bar/cafe but they only had gelato. He told us to go 100 meters or so up the road to the real Villanova.

The real Villanova was pretty much dead too. Few things were open. We finally found a restaurant open. It had a very nice patio right on the little port, with lots of private and fishing boats. No one else was on the patio, too cold for Italians the waiter said (translations by Wynette). Here is the little harbor

and another view, the patio we ate on it just to the right of large boat about a third the way around starting from the left.

We went out on the breakwater

and Wynette found a heart rock, as she always does, although it was a bit large to bring home.

We might put a print of this above our cappuccino machine at home.

Mick Jagger would not be happy here, everything is painted white, probably some sort of zoning thing. Here they are touching it up.

Our apartment is on this corner, the window on the right and the door on the left. It has a little stairway to our roof patio, not as fancy as that sounds but it has a table and chairs, but it has been too cold and windy to use it.

Another view. The arrow to the right says “senso unico”, one way street.

Me opening the door.

They have these doors where you only open one side with not much room to squeeze in, especially with a backpack on. The other side can be opened but hardly ever is.

The last time we were in Italy there were internet cafes all over, with PCs to use and a few had wireless. Mobile seems to have done away with all that. There are very few internet cafes with PCs. We’ve seen a few. There are a few cafes that offer wireless but not a lot, only one in Ostuni that anyone could tell us about. We asked at one bar/cafe and they said they used to have ot but no more.

When everyone has their iPhone or Android device and web access everywhere there just isn’t the need for internet cafes. I’m surprised at the lack of wireless though, maybe in the bigger cities.

Our apartment does not officially have wireless but there is a network named “KRAUN” (not a very Italian name) what has no password and works some of the time but it is quite slow and we don’t upload any pictures on it.

Instead we go to our internet cafe:

The owner, a sweet older woman thought our iPad and bluetooth keyboard was very cute. I guess she usually sees laptops.

We saw this on the walk down from our apartment to the main piazza where we caught the bus for Cisternino.

Here is the street we were walking down

and a doorway that was interesting

and the duomo in the middle of the old town (centro storico)

and the main piazza, between the new town and the old town.

We got to Ostuni yesterday. It is a hill town but only a couple of miles from the ocean so you can see the ocean from most parts of the town. There is, as usual, an old town and a new town but they are more integrated than they were in, say, Lecce. It is hard to tell the difference and the new town is higher on the hill than the old town (unusual).

We reserved a B&B sight unseen that had been recommended in a guide book. It turns out we were in the overflow room, which is really a little studio apartment in the new part of town. It takes five minutes to walk to the old town so that is fine.

The apartment is in an old building and has arched stone roofs that you see in a lot of old buildings.

It is a cute little place with a kitchen. Last night we went to the store and got some fresh pasta, tomatoes and pesto sauce in a grocery store. It turned out great. The pesto was as good as I have had. It is kind of like we are living in a little hill town in Italy. There are lots of stores and cafes quite close.

Ostuni Duomo

An arch looking the opposite way:

We had a lunch in a very nice place. Rather than showing the food, which we always do, we thought we would show the toilet.

and the sink

and another coffee near our apartment. They always ask if you want water with the coffee, probably for people getting the straight espresso.

Our kitchen. Watch out for the low arch.

Charlie reading on the bed. Notice the arched ceilings.

There are just six steps up from the entrance on the street.

The bathroom (more arches):

Here is our home cooked dinner: