April 29th Tuesday Savellertri to Casalabate

This little guy was making tracks across the side walk. Actually he was pretty quick..for a snail

The lemons on this tree were ready for the picking.

Standing in the courtyard of the Masseria Jim is under a  canopy of grape vines.

We have one at home, we've been inspired to creat the same.

Headed down the road, I'm sure those old olive trees are cheering us on.

Meet Grace! She is Dr T's and Peggy 's daughter . She is a lovely lady. Went to the CIA, Culinary Institute of America in California. She enjoyed the meals here.

Beth,Maddona and Michele leading the pack!

Some of the olive trees are thousands of years old. Their branches get so heavy they build the brick columns to hold them up.

The olive tee here is over 2 thousand years old!

On the knee of this tree is a tag/chip. All of these tress are protected by UNESCO. They are monitored by satellite.

Inside this building we found this old bike that no one could tell it's age for sure. It did have a lever to pull up on the brakes.

Outside the building was this old tree that they had carved faces into.

Pretty old motorcycle as well. Someone said it still is rideable.

Here is Gabe translating for the owner of the Masseria. It is still operating and he was the 7 th generation.

Bottles on the shelf in the office. They are filled with colored sand to create the pictures. I have no idea how they got all the fine detail in them

Jim, Gabe, Franco, the owner, and Grace. Jim bought 2 different kinds olive oil from Franco.

When we left the Masseria we went into town for lunch. While we were in the Resturant it started pouring rain. Here is Dr.T talking to a sad faced "T" she is recovering from being ill and he was telling her it was not good to ride in the rain. Jim and I opted with several others not to ride.

Riding in the van we saw clear skies up ahead. So at about 20K down the rode we decided to get on our bikes. Yippee!

No sooner did we get on the road we came up on this Shepard with his two dogs and a flock of sheep. Was that COOL! We were told not to get between the dogs and the sheep. The dogs will defend them.

I really liked their little pink ears. The blue on their backs tell when they will be sheared.

After we passed the sheep. Farther down the road it began to rain again. Man, did we get muddy and wet. After all this I felt I was becoming so good a manipulating my bike thru pot holes, mud and gravel that I acutally Might be able to mountain bike...just kidding.

After quite a hike to our room and cleaning up we were off to a wine/ beer tasting. The lady was very good at explaining history and the nuances of the wines and beer.

Below is a photo into the wine cellar from the floor above.

A parting shot of the evening. The brick out the entry is acutally the roof of the wine cellar.

The table settings for these evening meals remind me of a wedding party dinner. Very elegant.

On to Otranto tomorrow.

April 28th. Monday the Alberobello Loop

Today we ride it see a village of Trullis. These cone shaped houses were at one time storage sheds for the farmers. The story as I understand, they would move into the Trullis to avoid taxes. In the right situation the could pull the keystone out of the arch and the roof would collapse and there would not be anything to collect taxes on.

The Cathedral of Albereobello.

On all of the chimmneys these caps were mounted. There were a few others one I didn't get a photo of was a peacock.

This couple has the Trullis we visited. The lady was one of 13 children raised in this Trullis.  Amazing when you see now small this living space is.

Standing inside from where I am there is a small room beside me. There was a loft area above the room we are in. Frome left to right is Dr.T, David Sanborn, JB, Yevette, the tour guide and Tania.

Wandering down the lane we came up on this wedding couple. With lots of family and photographers 

Following them.

Had to show you this. It is a drain pipe. Most of the water in these villages go into cisterns under the homes.this looks like it might be the head of a dog or a lion. It is hard to tell.

Little crocheted booties for sale in t shop window.

This is a beautiful ride. There is a fellow off to the right tending the goats. We we ride past he has a baby goat in his lap.

Passed this lady on here way to a vegetable garden. I think she was eating a slice of pizza!

Leaving our Masseria we go next door the another one for a lesson in preparing traditional Pulian pizza.

A couple of our favorite friends, T and JB. 

Jim hasn't supervised in a few days, so he is quite a home here making sure the pizza master doesn't 

 Mess up.

Now everyone's has a turn at creative pizza making. Maddona and Peggyon the left and T and Jim 

On the right.

Wallah! The finished master pizza! It didn't last long. It was really tasty.

The last of the sun and we head inside for a lovely dinner

There were 16 of us counting guides. They have several settings to their dinners. Notoriously making it

A very long evening.

Tomorrow we move on to a hotel called Tenuta Monacelli. We will ride along the Adriatic.

April 27th Sunday Bari to Masseria Torre Maizza

After a long marathon meal the night before we are all ready to get on our bikes. It is a 45 minute ride to get to a Masseria, which a a farm where the are olive trees are grown and harvested. Most of these Masseria's have become hotels. We have a tour of it then a light lunch. Bikes are fitted up and we are on our way to another Masseria where we will be for two nights.

This little Fiat is from 1949. Still running!

Below is an olive press. They used mules to turn the wheels.

Sonja is one of our guides this week. It amazing where she has traveled. At 27 she is is a delight.

This was her first Trek Travel trip. Fortunately most everyone knew each other and I believe very little maintenance.

Ooh, this is Gabriel, to us known as Gabe. His life is a Facinating story as well. He lives on Sicily with his wife and new baby girl. With 4 languages it was fun to listen and watch him work with us and the locals.

Brad and his wife Maddona, we have done several Trek Travel trips with. They are so much fun. Brad is a great story teller and keeps us smiling.

Traveling these country roads, they are lined with many miles of stone walls. Behind those stone wall

Were just as many miles of olive trees. 

Tomorrow we ride a loop to a town called Alberobello. A village of "Trullis". I'll show you tomorrow.

April 26 Bari to meet with Trek Travel

This was driving into Bari. It rained all the way there and when we got into Bari a lot of the streets were flooded. Checking into the hotel we all eventually met up and gathered for a dinner at a Resturant that seemed to be the never ending dinner. The menus in Italy have many couses. Because we all ordered in different ways, it also meant it came out at different times. The waiter seemed to be the most amused.

Tomorrow we ride.

April 25 Friday tour Pompeii

Friday morning we woke up to a glorious day. Sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. Off we go to find our meeting point for the tour. OMG! The Piazza I put in was right where we needed to be. Below is it. Whoopee! We all met and there were 6 of us, a lady and her daughter from Louisiana and a couple from Canada,Perfect! There were huge tour buses with all of their people piling out into the piazza. 

This is Francesca, our guide. She is with a group called Italywalks. We have used this group before and the guides have been wonderful. We highly recommend them. Here she is showing some of the plaster remaining on one of the columns. Everything in Pompeii was covered in  plaster(stucco) and painted in bright vivid colors.

Below are statues in the small amphitheater. The top is one of Zues and below the little bit of an eagle remains

The streets are made of the huge cobbles. The raised stones are truly stepping stones. Between them you can see deep ruts where the cart wheels rolled through. Now the yucky part of this is the stones were there so people could walk across the street because this is where all the waste was thrown.

I guess they prayed for rain a lot.

Below is the remains of a bakery. One of the ovens to the left and a mill stone to the right. All of these places had second floors. The holes along the back wall are where the support beams had been.

Everyone I have talked to has seen the photo of the dog and several people unearthed from the remains. Their bodies were covered in ash. These are plaster mopeds that were made. They purred it into the shell of the ash because the bodies decomposed leavening basically a shell.

All the pottery and artifacts are what have been found. They have moved a lot to the museum in Naples for fear that the next eruption will destroy what you see here. Also they have not dug up all that remains. Mike, the Canadian went to take a photo of the guy below, I was beside him and a lady came between us and bumped his elbow. His phone went flying into the fenced area. Francesca was resoursefu and eventually found a broom and a dustpan and retrieved the phone. 

 After the tour we said our goodbyes. We got together with Mike and Karen, the Canadians and had lunch. Where we parked if you ate ther you got to park free. No brainer. They talked of going up to Vesuvius. Since we had the car, we decided what the heck. Off we go. What Ana adventure. We followed signs and started up this very steep road that turned into what looked like a cobbled foot path. Well the little Fiat we had eventually decided not to go any further. Somehow Jim turned that puppy around and down we went. We stopped a asked an older gentleman which way. With a smile he pointed to where we needed to go. He probably spent his day watching people try to go up that way. Jim and I have seen many a steep climb. The road to Vesuvius was amazing, we finally got to a point and realized it would be another hour and a half to get to the top. We all opted to go to the  museum. This sounds like a short trip. There are no straight roads in Napoli or Pompeii. We did get there. After the museum we dropped Mike and Karen off at the train station so they could get back to Rome. We made our way back near our hotel to a beautiful Resturant called Bikini. After a great meal

We got back to the hotel this was a full day 7:00 in the morning to 10:30 at night,what a fun day!

April 23 Wednesday off to Italy

Jim and I are off to Italy this afternoon. It is a 9 hour flight once we leave Chicago, after flying from Dallas....To get up to date we are going in a few days early to rent a car in Rome and drive to Pompeii.

When I was growing up Life Magazine did an article on Pompeii. Since then it was on my "barrel list" for as long as I can remember. Flight was uneventful, we slept well in business class. Picked up our rental car and off we were to Pompeii. The Italians do what I call " creative driving"! They defiantly don't stay between the lines. It appears making up your own rules apply. The interesting thing is there are very few issues. Just go with the flow. Thank goodness for GPS on phones. We got too our hotel without a hitch. In our room finally this was our view of Pompeii and Vesuvius 

We drove into town to find our meeting place for a walking tour we were doing the next day. Well, after driving in the town. Wow, we never found it. After a lot of frustration we went back to the hotel for dinner and a good night's sleep. I worked on my GPS and found a location I thought would be close.

We will see what happens in the morning.