Day 1, Brindisi

Brindisi, we made it. I can't believe it. Long trip, long time coming, exhausted. They lost Miles car seat, but I don't even care, I just want to get somewhere and put all of our bags down. I'm so happy to be here, to see palm trees, flowers and the sea. It's really so pretty here and I've always thought that Gabri was so lucky to be from such a beautiful place. Brindisi is an ancient port town and was the portal during Roman times for all things coming from Greece. During the Crusades it was the departure point for the muslim world. Now it's sort of a sleepy town but I always love coming to visit. It's so ancient and historical and interesting... must say it beats South Bend, Indiana by a long shot.
When we get to Gabri's family home, his mom, Pina, has prepared a bunch of our favorite things: sea bass baked in salt, pasta with caccioriccotta, and burrata being amongst our favorite. We chow down, fall into a deep slumber and then go for a walk in the center of town. We pass by the office of Valerio, one of Gabri's oldest friends, and hang out. His office is at the top of the ancient steps where the Roman columns stand (still) that welcomed travelers from Greece and the East. Supposedly Virgil lived where his office now stands and he takes us again through a door in his office to see the arches of Virgil's old house. Pretty cool. Again I am stunned by all this history.
We stop at Bar Betty to have some prosecco with Campari and to eat a rustico... one of my all time favorite things EVER. A rustico is like a croissant but it's round and it has beschamel, mozzarella and tomato on the inside. O. M. G. It melts in your mouth and just goes down so well. The first thing we usually do when we arrive in Brindisi is go to the American Bar (so funny these bars have all these bizarre American names) and have a rustico. We always have to hide this from Gabri's mom because she'll think we're ruining our appetite. What a better way to spend our time here than by stuffing ourselves silly! We're happy. We go back home, go to bed and sleep, interrupted, for 12 hours.

Day 4

We had 2 objectives today. 1. Take Miles to the acclaimed ZooSafari, and 2. Find a place that serves ricci, or sea urchins. We failed in the first because ZooSafari is only open on Sundays in the winter, but decided to talk a little walk in Alberobello, a beautiful little town made of these cool buildings called Trulli. The countryside is full of them in this area of Puglia, but they are concentrated in the town of Alberobello. The story is that years ago the taxes were so high that people couldn't pay them, so they decided to make these houses of stone without mortar where you could easily tear them down if you heard the tax man was around.
http://www.google.com/images?rlz=1T4ADBR_enUS313US314&q=alberobello+foto&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=_cx1TaIqkbeEB57u2PoG&ved=0CCQQsAQ&biw=1259&bih=511
Miles was disappointed about the ZooSafari thing, but we tried to convince him that we were going to smurf village. He wasn't convinced but tried to be a good sport.

After walking around Alberobello for a bit, drinking some wine and making friends (Miles and "Ale" the dog) we left for the coast (15 minutes away) and "Da Renzina" which according to Gabri is a famous restaurant for eating fish and especially "i riccci". (He always declares places are famous AFTER we get there and AFTER it's been confirmed that HE made a good choice.) Gabri got his ricci, I got my pasta with fresh seafood, we drank a bottle of rosato, Miles ate some cake, and we sat very contentedly and satiated and looked at the sea.