Highlights of Southern Italy! February 7 – 16, 2020

Welcome to my trip report! I will bold the topic for each paragraph, in case you want to skip sections and jump to the pictures.

Special Notes and Observations

Italians are very environmentally-conscious, and throughout the country we saw much evidence of zero impact on the environment, reducing transportation needs and supporting local products.

Wonderful food, of course! I ate lots of fantastic bread!

Sulfur is added to wine for preservation, when they have to export it. When you can drink wine without sulfur, the taste is so much richer. Italians keep most of the wine produced in Italy. As the Blue Bell ice cream slogan says: “we eat all we can and sell the rest.” There are any kinds of wine in Italy; all are very good. Many grapes are exported to France to make “French” wine.

Extra virgin olive oil is not only first press and cold press but is based on acidity. Tuscan olives are the perfect acidity. Sometimes Puglia olives are traded with Greece and Spain to blend olives to produce the right acidity. Olives grown in Italy are for oil, not eating. Olives grown in Greece and Spain are the best for eating.

Each olive tree is frequently evaluated for ripeness of the olives. Trees are selected individually for harvesting and shaken by hand tool or machine to drop the fruit into nets. Olives that fall on the ground are discarded, because the ground damages the ripening process. The olives are quickly taken to processing, where they are washed and crushed entirely. Solid pieces are removed, and the liquid is tested for acidity. It is cold press, first press, but the acidity determines “extra virgin.” 0.0 – 0.8 is extra virgin. 0.9 – 1.7 (I think) is virgin. Over 1.7 is lamp oil! (Also watch “virgin oil” in the US that is actually mixed with other oils.)

Oak trees were native in the Trulli area, not olive trees.

Some of the architecture in Puglia reminds me of New Orleans French Quarter.

Day-of-travel and airport adventures

It was my second time to the Frankfurt airport and this time I was prepared for the weather. As expected, we deplaned to a bus and were driven a long way to immigration/passport control. No problem. To board the next flight, again we were bused along a seemingly endless serpentine drive to the plane. At times I wondered if our bus driver was lost, drunk, or otherwise impaired!

At the NAP Naples airport we were screened for temperature because of the Coronavirus by the Italian Red Cross—who wear these very heavy, thick uniforms with big reflective tape—just like our firefighters. There was no additional passport check, since we were entering from another Schengen country. Although Naples is the third most populated city in Italy, the airport seems relatively small and easy to navigate. (more on this later in Day 9)

First Impressions of Naples

I had read in several places that Naples was overbuilt and ugly. OMG with the wonderful exceptions later in this report, Naples seems like one gigantic housing project. All the buildings you can see from the airport and drive along the freeway are identical boxes upon boxes with lots of laundry hanging on little balconies. Even illegal construction is erected on the side of the volcano. Vesuvius is so close; that’s why it is the most monitored volcano in the world.

Day 1 Sorrento

This is going to be a great travel group! We already met about 10 people in the Naples airport while waiting together for our transfer to Sorrento. Now I met more cool people on the rooftop terrace of the hotel, while exploring the hotels features. (BTW the “seasonal” pool is definitely seasonal…and this is not the season!) Full moon rising over the mountains: gorgeous!

Our dinner in old central Sorrento was at Ristorante o Parrucchiano La Favorita, a famous and highly recommended place. It was wonderful and beautiful: like eating inside an historic Victorian greenhouse/conservatory. https://www.parrucchiano.com/

Day 2 Sorrento, Positano,

Our walking tour in old central Sorrento was wonderful. Too many pictures to include here, but one of the things for which they are famous is the inlaid wood. This picture is from the church of St. Philip and St. James. The cat was guarding the statue of St. Francis of Assisi! The old 16^th century Sedile Dominova loggia is a famous meeting place. Huge lemons, of course!

The Amalfi drive and visiting Positano were bucket list items! Amazing! The sand was dark and coarse.

Wonderful dinner in the community of Vico Equense at Cantina del Fattore , a multi-generational family farm: they make mozzarella cheese, sausage, lemoncello, etc. It is self-sustaining and only open for private gatherings. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g194947-d6557856-Reviews-La_Cantina_del_Fattore-Vico_Equense_Province_of_Naples_Campania.html

Day 3 Drive to Trani and Bari (236 miles)

Beautiful drive across to the Adriatic to the beautiful old fishing town and historic financial city of Trani. It is the birthplace of the bank and for many years the headquarters of Jews in Italy. Quiet, quaint and beautiful. We had time to explore. Several of us had sandwiches/drinks at a cool little place: PaninArt “slow food all’italiana”! https://www.facebook.com/Paninart.Trani

Bari is a bigger city with lots of modern shopping, business and financial centers, along with very traditional and historic treasures. There is a wonderful seawall on the waterfront, where many walk or jog. Also, many people row, sail or kayak or sit in the parks and play cards. People in Bari want to impress each other with their status: they even wear furs in the warm month of June! (my old trench coat in February would have to do!) We had a pasta-making lesson and toured the old city-center! At one point in the past the government wanted to tax the grandmothers, who made pasta at their front door and sold it to local restaurants and individuals. The locals protested and the government retreated. Now you can walk down the old narrow streets and still see the sweet ladies hand-making the pasta. There are also many beautiful fresh vegetables! When you eat a powdered sugar confection, they call it “dirty mouth”!

Day 4 Bari and Alberobello

More exploring in Bari, then the exciting bucket list drive to Alberobello: the Trulli houses! The countryside was gorgeous. I was surprised that Alberobello was actually a town around the Trulli. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa60S6Yd_PA

Day 5 Drive to Lecce

Touring Lecce was amazing. No surprise that there is more Greek influence here. They are famous for paper mache. Our wonderful dinner was at an olive oil farm, Masseria Stali. We learned all about the production and quality testing of olive oil. Then we had live music and a fun dance lesson with the regional folk dance! https://www.masseriastali.it/?lang=en

Day 6 Drive to Matera

I think this was the surprise of the trip. I had read about the cave dwellings, but it is so much more than I expected. People actually lived in the cave-houses as recently as 1968! During certain decades it was a dangerous place, but now it is very clean and has become upscale B & B’s. We had an exciting tour. Matera was also a great place to walk and explore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK6x0lKrRAI

Day 7 Drive to Naples

This road trip had the most constant beautiful countryside I have ever seen. Beautiful farms, deep, colorful gorges, and mountain streams. We found one tiny little community in a valley with a somewhat hidden larger building. Our tour director said that any new factory or other large commercial building in Italy is built within the landscape to stay hidden.

Our afternoon was spent exploring Herculaneum, another city destroyed by the 79 AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Smaller but better preserved than Pompeii, Herculaneum had more ash than lava, which allowed better excavation. Many of its inhabitants ran toward the water and died later from the toxic ash, rather than fire. Herculaneum is west of Vesuvius, between the volcano and the bay; Pompeii is south of the volcano and farther from the water. The first pic is an original bed frame!

The pictures above are of an interior mural, foyer fountain and table and window shutters, all original.

We had an unplanned, on-the-way stop at a famous cameo manufacturer place: Palazzo del Corallo. We learned the process of making cameo, and of course, had the opportunity to purchase our own treasure! http://www.palazzodelcorallo.it/en/home-eng/

Dinner was up the side of Mt. Vesuvius at a vineyard/winery/private restaurant: Cantina del Vesuvio. Wonderful food and wine. https://www.cantinadelvesuvio.it/en/tastings

Day 8 Exploring Naples

We had a narrated driving tour to start the day: castles, history lesson, parks built for royal romantic encounters, parks built only for people with leather shoes and silk clothes! Then we had several hours at the amazing National Archeological Museum, housing the best artifacts.

Then about half of the group went back to the hotel, but for those of us adventurers, we continued walking along the city center for exploring the busy city center of Spaccanapoli. We ate the famous Margarita pizza at its birthplace, saw the first music conservatory in the world, explored lots of little shops, and ate the special pastry sfogliatelle! We visited the convent/orphanage and museum of St. Clare. There is also an “underground Naples.” We saw where Julia Roberts was filmed for the movie section in “Eat, Pray, Love”.

Day 9 The long road home

As you enter the Naples airport, look for the large overhead sign that lists which airlines are at which ticket counters. There were no designated airline names over the ticket counters…they are just numbered! I took the lead in our group (in the wrong direction) and was at Air France! Back the other way… The gate areas in Naples had some comfy seating/rest areas.

The Munich airport was wonderful. They have rest areas with lounge chairs and (fake) plants and photo decals that look like a garden. The halls are wide and the shopping is like an upscale mall. It is very clean like Frankfurt, but not overly congested with kiosks and new cars in the middle. In spite of the nice shopping distractions and restaurants, I’m glad we did not waste too much time in finding our gate. There were 3 passport checks and another security screening! The first passport check was by government police. The second and third were by airline personnel, but the surprise was the extra screening and pat-down. We were allowed to take our (just-purchased) drinks in, because they had a drink analyzer machine. (Lucky for me: I thought I was going to have to either throw away my Diet Coke or stand there and chug the whole thing quickly!) Again we had lots of stairs to a bus and a long drive to the plane, but it was more direct than the serpentine in Frankfurt. Nevertheless, you need to get to your gate early and be prepared for the weather.

It was a wonderful trip!
Some of us are staying in contact, sharing travel stories and possibly a trip in the future! ~Linda