We headed out of Gallipoli and were basically going to be winding our way along the sea all day, so Nancy didn't have to worry so much about navigating and we had a beautiful, if somewhat deserted, view all day. The path between Gallipoli and Santa Maria is not a hugely touristy area and the season is already pretty much done anyway. A lot of the houses seem abandoned and businesses are boarded up - it kind of reminds me of a depressed Florida or Mexico area.
I stopped to get a caffé and watch the locals spear fish while Nancy bikes back to get a picture of some houses she liked. We then bikes into Torre San Giovanni, roughly the midpoint of our day, and had lunch!! We were actually early!! Nancy painted and I wrote a bit and had some wine as we waited for lunch service to start at 12:30.
We had the best little fried mozzarella balls for starters, they still had some of the fresh mozzarella water inside when we bit in. I had a tagliolini with fresh seafood - the octopus bits are my favorite - and Nancy had a plate of fried seafood. It was great to get some down time in the middle of the day.
We biked on (total for the day would be 33 miles) and ended up on a bike path through a reedy, isolated area. We got a tiny bit lost, but we're getting back on track when a man on a bike came out of the beach on his bike and kind of ended up in the middle of us biking back to the main road. It was a little awkward at first, but then he started making conversation and we found out he had been biking for 25 days across Italy. His name was Fabio - a painter originally from Milan. We chatted and biked along - he was also headed to Santa Maria - and he ended up coming to the beach with us.
I wanted to get in the water and it was the perfect day since it was getting overcast and there were very few people out and the sun wasn't so bright. Fabio was telling us it wasn't really a beach day, but we said we prefer it with our untanned-ness. I went in the water for quite a while and chatted with some other people from our group that had also stopped there. Nancy did a painting of the seaside waiting for me.
There was a huge space of beach chairs sitting empty and I convinced her to go sit on them, even though it was clear the area was closed. We can always play the Americans don't understand card. It worked out just fine - Nancy got reprimanded
once, but they let her stay.
While I was out in the clean, clear Ionian Sea - I could see a little hut down the beach.
I figured it was a little changing area, so when I got out of the water, I walked over there to change into my biking clothes and dry off. When I got there, I realized it actually wasn't a changing room, but actually a Gypsy wagon that someone was
living in! Oops! So, I just changed on my little towel on the beach while a family kept glancing over at me - eyes on the water, people!!
We got back on the road and it started to rain a bit harder - we stopped a great little gelato place and had tiramisu gelato with little spoons made out of cookies! Joy!! Three treats in one day!! Fabio was interesting to talk to about the Italian language and stops on his trip. We peppered him with questions and for the most part he was able to answer.
We came around a beautiful cliff as we neared the tip of the boot heel and parked our bikes to walk out on Punta Ristola overlooking the ocean - we did it!! Very cool to see in the rain and gray - we were giddy - the rain was warm and light and we were just drenched by this time. We found. our hotel only a few minutes away.
This was definitely the most lux of our accommodations with a huge stone driveway and gorgeous lobby. We said good-bye to Fabio and he went off to his hostel - we agreed to meet up with him the next day to bike to Otranto. The rain started picking up, so we decided to have dinner in the hotel restaurant, as did most of the people from our biking group.
Seafood was the main focus and they brought around a basket of fresh fish with a giant lobster - the lobster on the menu said €12 per kg, so I ordered the lobster. The waiter came back with a little pad of paper to let me know it was an 1,100 gram lobster. So €132 for a lobster dinner. I decided to go with the shrimp.
Just as an example of the kind of travel partner Nancy is, I commented that I MIGHT pay €132 for a lobster if I could split it and she said that I should do it then and she would split it with me. And I asked if she would really spend €70 on lobster, and she said she actually doesn't like lobster, but she would get it if I really wanted it. So sweet. I didn't take her up on it though.
After dinner, we were going to play scrabble and drink wine and sit n the patio - it was pouring rain on the roof and music was playing at it was just sort of perfect, but as we were setting up a couple from our group asked to join us. A German couple, Franz and Iris, though Franz said we can call him Francesco while in Italy, both in the aeronautics industry, sat down and we all started chatting about the trip and life in Europe. They were so funny and interesting, so we asked how this whole siesta for 5 hours in the middle of the day could possible be making Italians any money and Franz said that they aren't so worried about making money, but more concerned with having a good life. It really floored us - we've been so focused on our lack of lunch that we forgot that people are really just enjoying their lives and their families and they aren't so worried about the €12 we were going to spend.
Awesome fun night - there was some grappa and more prosecco involved - and then we went back to our room. Nancy went to sleep but I couldn't figure out how to turn off the lights so I had to wake her back up and we searched the room - I was ready to unscrew the light bulbs, but she called down to the front desk and they pointed out the lightswitches - behind the bed frame! Of course!!
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