We hit the road after a breakfast that included freshly squeezed OJ from Sicilian oranges and fresh cherries from the trees of our landlady. The traffic on the four lane highway was light. We left the highway after Brindisi to have more scenery. We stopped for a cappuccino in San Cataldo, a small seaside village, in a tiny joint that had numerous old photos which seemed to glorify Mussolini. Very bizarre! The Italians have never come to terms with their past as well as the Germans have. We arrived at the Villa Conca Marco around 11:30, the reception was very friendly. A welcome change from Il Casale dei Fornici! After unpacking we headed for the beach. Conca Marco has a semi-private beach with free use of lounge chairs and umbrellas for its guests. Also Heineken on tap (not free, alas). We spent several hours there, swimming, sunning and snorkeling , then came home to shower up. Conca Marco is located in the midst of olive groves and fruit trees; they were just putting the fin

This was our last day near Polignano a Mare, we wanted to have a quiet day. In the morning we drove to Gioia del Colle, a town of 27,000 to our southwest. It's a charming town with an impressive castello, built by Frederick the II around 1230. Otherwise there wasn't all that much to see, after a cappuccino we returned to Il Casale dei Fornici and spent the afternoon swimming, reading and jogging. We went to Polignano for dinner, and had an excellent pizza al fresco near the church in the old town. They were putting up what looked like a theatrical stage, it turned out to be part of the preparations for the weekend festivities honoring S. Vito Martire. On our return to the albergo we noticed with horror that preparations for a party were underway - buffet tables were being set up around the swimming pool, a sound system was installed. It was 9:30 PM! At first I thought it must be for the next day, but Anja thought we should ask to be safe. Yes indeed, there was to be a wedding

Most people - even traffic-hardened Europeans - are at first aghast at the driving habits of Italians in the Mezzogiorno. I was. No one seems to obey any traffic laws, in the towns pure chaos seems to reign. At the wheel your blood pressure rises as you look nervously left, right, behind you, ahead of you. But after a while you start to realize that, if not exactly a system, there is some kind of method here. The prime principle seems to be: It's all a game. In Germany or the U.S. tailgating is aggressive, and causes aggressive responses. But in Italy the tailgater is simply getting into position for the next chance to pass, and will happily stay there for miles if necessary, without intending any aggression. In town if you wait passively at a side street to merge into the arterial, you can wait for a long time if you don't take any action. But just start to nose your way into the flowing traffic, and they'll let you in. The same applies to pedestrians. Stand at the side

After a pleasant Sunday breakfast on the terrace, a friendly employee (maybe the daughter of the owner - we never found out) showed us how to turn on the air conditioning. I guess understanding how to operate modern air conditioners is a prerequisite for life in Puglia, but this otherwise tech-oriented northerner had a deal of difficulty throughout the trip. We decided we were ready for the beach, so we drove to a beach south of Monopoli. Many of the beaches in Puglia are operated by concessionaires, who operate snack bars and rent umbrellas and lounge chairs. There was a large Sunday crowd at the beach, the atmosphere was friendly and very family-oriented. The actual beach was tiny, not much more than 20-30 yards wide. Only a few feet into the water the bottom was covered with stones and rocks that were slippery and difficult to walk on; at the extreme left of the beach there was an area where the sand extended somewhat farther into the water, everyone used this area to get into the

We woke to an unpleasant surprise - the toilet wouldn't flush. Hmm - it was one of those modern toilets where the entire works are hidden in the wall. I took off the cover plate, but I couldn't solve the problem - the tank wouldn't fill. We went down to breakfast at 8.45, and found we were the only guests. The owner of Il Casale, a dour, balding, grey-haired man apparently in his fifties, brought us croissants. We told him about the problem in our room. After bringing us our coffee and tea, he disappeared without comment, presumably to fix the toilet. Shortly thereafter he came back down, and to our dismay he started making phone calls - obviously the problem was beyond his ability to fix. Hoping for the best, we drove to Polignano to take the train to Bari. We were in plenty of time, and after deciphering the faded Italian writing on the elderly ticket machines we bought two round trip tickets. Since we still had time, I decided to look for a newspaper - an Italian one

Our flight from Munich arrived 15 minutes early in Bari, a good start to the trip. But our suitcase took 45 minutes to show up at sleepy Bari airport. We picked up our Fiat Panda rental car without difficulty at Hertz and hit the road for La Casale dei Fornici, the first albergo we had booked for this trip. We found it without too much trouble thanks to our trusty TomTom 930 PND. The initial impression of the Casale was good, a beautiful, modern hotel with a restaurant and a small number of rooms. We took a dip in the pool, then headed for nearby Polignano a Mare. We couldn't find a place to park in Polignano, so we headed up the road to fishing village San Vito, which according to one of our guide books was "delightful fishing village". "Delightful" is perhaps an exaggeration, "modestly charming" would be more accurate. We were getting hungry, but it was much too early for restaurants to be open in Puglia - except in very touristy areas most restaur

This was an amazing vacation. For us terra incognita, in our many Italian vacations we'd never gone farther south than Tuscany. How can I tell about this in a way that's not boring for the majority? I kept daily notes while there, I think I'll use them as a basis and tell the story day by day, making a new post for each day. This may also spawn some extra posts, for example about driving in southern Italy. Background For those not familiar with Italian geography, Puglia is the region in the extreme southeast of the country, the heel of the boot. The terrain is mostly flat, save for the last southern extension of the Appenines running down the middle of the region, the Murgia. It's bordered on the east by the Adriatic Sea; Albania is only about 60 miles away. It's a dry region, but not a desert. Along the coast vegetables are produced, and (as in much of Italy) olive trees and grapes seem to be growing everywhere. It's not a famous wine-growing region, but there