Better weather in London

For years I’ve hated it when other Europeans, including Germans and Scandinavians, have sneered at the UK describing it as cold and damp.  I won’t anymore.  If anybody starts that malarkey they’ll get both barrels from me, and probably more to their detriment, both barrels from Bunty too. 

We’ve experienced “Spring” in South Italy and can expose the outrageous fraud that’s being perpetrated at our expense.  This last week in Ostuni (South of Bari, virtually in Africa) the weather was worse than it was in London.  Here it was 6 deg with cold rain and wind for 2 days, whilst in London it was a balmy 8 deg with sunny intervals.  Anyone starts, we can tell them, “Look pal, we’ve been there, we know your weather’s crap too.  Why does everyone in Sorrento own an umbrella? And whilst we’re on the subject .. how come you have blue flag beaches that in March are hidden beneath mounds of plastic bottles, discarded rubbish and dead animals.  Redcar beach may be toxic and radio-active, but the sands nice, and now the steel works are shut you can see for miles; on a good day all the way across to Port Clarence.” 

I know what I prefer.

When we were in Pompeii, we nicked a few sprigs of Rosemary that was growing by the path.  I put them in the spuds I cooked that night ..  I called the dish “Pompeii Potatoes”.

Anyway .. where have we been

Friday the 18^th started rainy, so we went to Herculeam, which the book said was like Pompeii but better.  We thought that unlikely but gave it a go anyway.  It was so much better ..  houses with roofs still on, the whole of the bath house was intact, with the mosaics and seats and plunge baths.  Again it was thanks to Vesuvius, covered the whole lot in 39 meters of ash, of which they’ve dug out about a tenth of the town.  This is Vesuvius in the background ..

Blog 5 a

The Saturday was time to go over to Bari (Ostuni to be precise), and before we left, for the first time we could see right across the bay of Naples from the house.

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We got to the next place at about 4 pm.  It is in a labyrinth of narrow, North African styled buildings (hopefully this will be enough to deter Gaddafi from bombing us). 

Sunday we had a look round Ostuni, the “white city”, but grey when we looked round.  We had a look in the Churches and at the City walls etc.  Thence to Ostuni Marina to watch the waves push a years’ worth of flotsam along the prom and smash up all the beachside cafes.  The next day we went to some local towns, Ceglie Messapica, with a Bourbon Castle, and a Baroque Cathedral with an organist putting himself through his paces with some dramatic fugues.

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The local traditional dwelling is a Trulli

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And Alberobello is Trulli heaven (or hell if you live in one of them and are taller than 4 ft 6).

Tuesday the sun came out, and we went to Egnathia, Roman ruins (we’re hard to impress now with such things, we probably peeked too early with having seen Pompeii and Herculeam, everything else is a bit - er - ruined really).  We did find a couple of nature reserves, so we could walk without being in fear for our lives.  Torre Guaceto was the better one.

Blog 5 e