Our last morning in Amalfi, we are blessed with a beautiful day and I take the opportunity to take a selfies with each of my boy on this beautiful balcony! We loved it here!

As we leave amalfi to drive across to Puglia, we decide to make a stop at the Grotto di Castellana. We barely make it on time for the tour. What a treat! These caves are majestic, formed by a river thousands of years ago, it is hard to take it all in. While we take the shorter tour because of time constraint, we still make our way 72 metres below the surface and learned about the various formations. It is really something ! Apparently the biggest ones in Europe. The locals used to think that it was a direct path to hell so were quite scared of it until the Ministry decided to hire speleogues to climb down on rope ladder to explore what was beneath. And what was their surprise when they realized the magnitude of the caves and tunnels! Definitely a must see.

We arrive at our villa in the evening after our stop at the grotto. We realize that there isn’t anything walking distance so we must drive over for food 😦 Luckily our hosts had stuck the fridge with cold cuts, cheese, fruits, bread and more!

The next morning I drive over the the old part of Ostuni called the White City with Marc-Andre. It is beautiful and we love the piazza. Why don’t we have piazza in Canada? Marc-Andre and I have a nice caffè and explore the city a bit.

Tonight is the highlight of the trip. One of the main reason why we came to Puglia.

Dinner at the Grotto Palazzere!

Our driver picks us up on time and we are seated right by the water. It is truly unique and all that I had imagined! The food is excellent and we spend a beautiful evening serenaded by a sax players perched on top in a balcony gazing at the see and the cliffs and caves around us. Truly a magical experience.

The next morning I realize that we face east from the upstairs terrace and we are treated to a beautiful sunrise…for the early risers like me so we is really just me 🤪.

Beach day!! I finally get all our team up and at it and we make our way to the coast for a beach day.

The water is turquoise blue and everything is so beautiful! We all enjoyed some floating, some swimming and some relaxing with our books on the beach. A lovely half day!

We all change into our clothes and decide to make our way to the White City so I can show everyone the piazza and get a bite to eat.

We forgot about the siesta!

Few restaurant are opened but we manage to find a place to eat nonetheless.

The next day is supposed to be a rainy day but it turns out that we got major wind and rain overnight and it looks like we will be spared of rain so I suggest a day trip to Arberobello to see the trullis.

While there is one on our property and several in the fields as we drive, it is great to see the small museum as well as a whole neighbourhood of them. The cathedral is also impressive and we have a nice lunch in town.

Sunday is an exciting day for me. We have reservation for a tour of the “Antica Masseria Brancati”, speciliazing in produce olive oil manually. We learn that the current owner bought the masseria in the early 1800s from the previous Spanish owners. They are now on the 7th generation running the farm. They have trees that have been analyse with carbon method to be more than 2000 years old and e learn that olive trees are hollow and store water in the bark so do not need to be water often. Their biggest enemy is frost.

He also brings us to the grandfather tree….it is 3000 years old…it is crooked and needs support (from the stones on the photo) as they try to protect it but it continues to be a great producer of olives.

He explains that a large portion of these trees were planted by the roman who ensured that there was good distance between the trees so that they did not compete for ressources. They continue to adhere to the artisanal way, including absolutely no use of pesticide and fertilizer. He explains that the modern masseria plant trees much too close together to increase production but their trees do not live as long or produce as well. Puglia produces 40% of the Italian olive olive oil production.
He explains that extra virgin oil means that the olives must be harvested and pressed the same day and can not be mixed…check the labels! They harvest by spreading a large net under the tree and shaking the branches so that the olive fall. If the olive touch the ground, they decompose immediately!

He also takes us down to show the oil olive press from the Greek time and the roman times and explains the difference. This is all fascinating.

We do a taste test and understand clearly the difference in taste and use of virgin versus extra virgin. We plan to order oil in January after the next harvest! There are some type of olive oil that are so strong that they should never be used with fish as they will overwhelm the taste…good to know! Now I know how to taste olive oil as our guide is also an oil sommelier.

Olive oil has a maximum shelf life of 18 months so he suggest to the Californian people to buy Californian olive oil. The best oil is the freshest! I could go on and on. This tour was amazing!

Beautiful property and we take the opportunity to take a great family picture.

We meet visitors from Poland who are able to fly over for the weekend for 40 euros 🤦‍♀️ Again we are encouraged to visit Poland as our next destination. They tell also that they feel Puglia will become the next Tuscany in terms of popularity in the next few years. Good thing we visited now!

In the evening, we have a local Italian mama coming over to cook for us. She prepares a menu of typical local food including stuffed zucchini flowers fried, which she teaches me how to do, amazing orecchiette, stuffed fish and tiramisu.
What a great evening enjoyed on the upstairs patios and delicious meal. We are stuffed and have to store a lot fo the leftovers for tomorrow!

Monday is our visit to Lecce to visit the “Florence of the South” and meet up with my cousin’s daughter Myriam who is doing her PHD in archeology in the South of Italy!
She is so nice and has researched buildings and history to give us a fantastic private tour of the city. We visit the monumental cemetery, the old wall and vestige of roman road and the old city itself, including the Basilica and the church of Santa Croce which are the symbol of Baroque architecture.

We also walk by the roman amphitheater, still used for shows and concerts, the small castle and the private museum Faggiano, fully excavated by the owner family who wanted to open a restaurant but instead found vestiges from roman and pre-roman era, the templars and the medieval times. An amazing story of dedication and perseverance.

She has found a restaurant servicing typical local food and Alex choose the pasta with donkey sausage 😳 and Chuck the horse meat balls! Lovely day in her company.

We say our good byes where we started our day at the magnificent Porta Napoli.

I close by posting some photos of our beautiful Villa Aurora. Beautiful pomegranate trees, enormous bushes of rosemary, hedges of lavender bushes, magnificent views of the sea and Ostuni as well as a mischievous elf overlooking the pool. They even have their own trulli on-site which is fully renovated as an apartment.

Despite the big wind, we really enjoyed it!