Blog 10
Had a real shocker with the weather on Wednesday, woke to strong winds and freezing rain, we are high up, 796 M, but it got down to 4 deg C, colder than Stockholm. We drove around in a fruitless search for the limestone caves, on deserted roads and back to the house in a mood. Thye next day the wind had gone and the sun was out, down at the beach it was 15 deg. We had a fantastic walk from Mattinata to the Necropolis di Monte Saracino. The path traverses the sea cliff then climbs up to the old first world war defences and behind that, the necropolis (hundreds of graves carved out of the limestone pavement).
Today there are clouds on the mountain but it looks brighter down at sea level so we’ll give that a go later. This morning (Friday 15th April) we went to our local church, S Maria Maggiore, built by the Bishop of Galgarno, extended by the Lombardians, then the Swabians. This portal is XII sec, but has all the detail intact and lots of little intriguing little faces. Inside it’s covered in Fresco’s.
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We had a second look at the sanctuary archangel Michele, the first time it was packed and a service was in progress. Not much better this time, not as packed but a bigger congregation attending the service. They’ve all been here, it was THE place to be seen if you were wanting to be an ecclesiastical big shot. The Venerable Bede himself came all the way from Peterlee, nice to think we’re following in his footsteps.
More prosaically we went to buy some mouthwash (without the Italian dictionary). Savon di bocca didn’t ring any bells (Soap of the mouth), and after some charades (drinking, swishing, gargling and spitting) we were lucky not to be arrested.
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