2022, July 20th.

Well, we had an amazing 2 weeks in Italy, driving from Frontignan by car to Puglia, Southern Italy, to spend a week with Benji and Claire to celebreate their engagement..

So many pictures- far too many for the blog.And just when we want to post better pictures, the laptop is not downloading properly. 

Decided not to risk flying to Brindisi via UK with all the airport problems - so we drove to Puglia.....1700 kms, (1000miles.).  The first day was a long leg of 1000kms through to Raveena on the East Coast of Italy. 

Raveena is a beautiful old Italian town containing the most incredible mossiacs.  It is a showcase of art, history and culture of rare beauty.  Eight Early Christain and Byzantine buildings compose the UNESCO site. Unfortuately all our amazing videos of the inside of these buildings have failed to down load on our laptop ( I feel a new one coming !!) but may try to send a few via email.

The Basilica of San Vitale.

Inside Bassilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo.

Inside Cappella Di S.Andrea.

Of courses a well deserved Pizza and beer for 10euros and the onto another bar for a wine.

For chocolate lovers- our hotel had bowls of these everywhere - a bit soft in the summer heat I admit!!

Next stop was Trani, about 6 hrs down the coast where we picked up Emma & Jesse who had

flown in from Toronto via Rome, as a surprise for Claire's party..  

We had the most amazing-- long awaited -- thunderstorms that required us to buy unbrellas.

A coastal small town, with lovely old windy streets- again most places not suitable for cars.

 

The Harbour.

Amazing how different the sea is each side of the breakwater. Saturday fish stalls.

Our booking.com room- fantastic but was up 2 flights of stairs.

💥💥

And then onto Puglia,( 3hrs) to Benjis house where we stayed for a week. Sunday saw the official engagement cerermony with Benji's family, ours and a few close friends. We do not know much about the jewish faith- but are learning fast. The whole family have been absoltuely lovely and welcoming.

Party night.

Here we decided this beach was a bit crowded for us so stayed cool up in a bar on the cliff.

 

During the week we had various day trips out and about.

After a hectic week we set off again to drive back to the boat, leaving the weekend celebrations continuing as the young ones ( under 40) had 2 more days of festivities planned..

Next real stop was Lucca,  a well preserved historic city in Tuscany. The temperature in Europe hasn't abated at all and its been well over 30 degrees for us for weeks. So all overnight stops had air-con👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

This proves we climbed The Torre Guingi , 233 steps!!   (Tree Tower)

Everyone can make a little outside space if they try!

The Piazza San Michelle and The Vicolo Chiostro della Cathedrale.

And dinner out.

Breakfast out in the cool at 8am, (still 28 degrees)and off back to the boat.

                                                                         👍💓💓💓

Trivia.===  so it was a long drive back. 

 And from Lucca to Monaco it was only 340kms.. !!.  And instead of counting cars, or playing I Spy- we counted numbers and lengths of all the tunnels and viaducts.

So, during the 340kms,  we drove through  161 tunnels --- total of 64,540kms, of which 26 were more than 1km long.

We passed over 191 viaducts, total of  50,422kms.. After that we got fed up and stopped, but the coastal highway is incredible..

😞😞😞😞

So only 2 weeks left of our french/italian sourjoine, and we still have friends to catch up with before we leave.  so now we have to head back to Beziers to put Kiwi Rose early to bed for the winter.