Brindisi

In southern Italy this morning, a bright, clear sky, greeted us. As we left the aire, to walk to the town, a jay, flew across in front of us, landing on a nearby wall. Sensing, we wanted to photograph it, it took flight.

As we walked amongst the trulli houses, we realised, that despite being tired from walking around the cave dwellings, at Matera yesterday, we perhaps should have walked out yesterday evening, to look at the houses, as there were many visitors viewing them this morning. So, once again, we had to wait patiently, to try and obtain some reasonable photographs, that were not full of strangers. As we walked amongst the hobbit like buildings, we were amused by the Japanese women, who whenever we see them, always pose for their photographs, like they are expecting to be featured in a glamour magazine.

Most of the houses are gift shops, but in one area, there were quite a few as holiday lets.

Down near the towns high street, we saw two men repairing the roof on one of the trulli houses, which was interesting, as we could see a cross section of its construction.

Around midday we left Alberobello.

The market was on in the town, so as Marge squeezed through the parked cars, we stopped to allow an elderly gentleman to pull in front of us. When we can, we always do this, it's one less person to keep an eye on behind you, and it's terribly British! John, thinks that because he was so shocked by our gesture, that he promptly drove into the side of a stationary vehicle, and didn't stop, of course. Good job we let him out in front of us! As we left the the town, the country roads narrowed, and the Italians were still attracted to Marge's bodywork, cutting every corner, and passing as close as they could. We drove by, fields of cherry trees, and saw a person, stop and buy some over a wall, direct from the man harvesting them. As we travelled south, the landscape flattened out, just to our left were white flat roofed houses, in an Arabic design, with the electric blue of the Adriatic sea showcasing them from behind. To our right, acres and acres of olive trees, some of them quite old, with thick, split, gnarled trunks.

Tonight, Marge is back down the docks. The aire is in the car park, adjacent to the ferry terminal at Brindisi.

From the van, we can see the car ferry, waiting to set sail for Albania. No, we're no tempted. However, the other car ferry, that leaves from this port, sails to Greece, but we'll save that, for another trip. The temperature when we arrived was 29c. It doesn't seem possible, that a few days ago, we were witnessing the terrible storms around Pompeii.

Late afternoon, just as the shops, cafes and bars were reopening, we walked into town, stopping to look at various churches, some roman columns, the Adriatic sea and the many buildings, inhabited now only by pigeons.

As we crossed the road, behind our van, we could hear a cockerel crowing from the branches of an overhead tree. A cockerel, at a ferry port, really?

But, on our return to Marge, we saw said cockerel, strutting around the grass below, hopping up onto the bench seats, to show himself of. All very lovely, but please don't start crowing, around four o' clock in the morning!