Salento is the peninsula that is the heel of Italy’s boot. It’s one of the most isolated places in Italy but easy access from Bari, Puglia’s capital. Guest blogger Annamaria Borelli rented a car and rekindled old childhood memories by hanging out at the beaches. A car is a must but so is relaxation.
It’s a major adjustment from the U.S. to Italy and from Italy to Puglia. For transplanted New Jersey girl Annamaria Borelli, it’s a life she always dreamed about.
Traveling in Italy is only a dream for Americans. For us living here, it’s a wonderful reality. However, a trip to Puglia shows caution from the coronavirus remains.
Wine Tastings of Rome, a terrific Meetup group that could only have a more attractive name if Beyonce held its sign, brought in wine makers from around Puglia to one room at the Hotel Imperiale. Built in 1895, the Hotel Imperiale is as elegant as it sounds. It’s a gold palace with small balconies overlooking tree-lined Via Veneto, perhaps Rome’s most glamorous street where its rich and famous once preened for panting fans and fought with prying paparazzi. Walking into the snow-white interior, I felt thankful I wore a sportcoat as “retired journalist” and “elegant” aren’t usually found in the same sentence. The Hotel Imperiale makes you at least try to look the part.
(To read more, click here.)
SUNDAY, MAY 13 – LECCE, ITALY Mussolini vowed he’d make the trains in Italy run on time and he did. Now Italy needs another fascist to work on the buses. I’m in Lecce 40 euro poorer after the “deficiente” (moron) here three days ago sold me a bus ticket from Otranto to Lecce when there […]
SATURDAY, MAY 12 – OTRANTO, ITALY There’s a bottle of ice cold water near my laptop that I would’ve given five years off my life or my left testicle last night if it was available. I’m so dehydrated I don’t know if I felt worse this morning or yesterday when I had the vicious hangover. […]
FRIDAY, MAY 11 – OTRANTO, ITALY I take back anything good I’ve said about Italian wine. They don’t need preservatives and phosphates, the mine fields of American wine, to produce a nuclear explosion in your frontal lobe. I’m writing this with one eye closed. It’s to lessen the pain from a savage hangover from the […]
THURSDAY, MAY 10 – FOGGIA, ITALY There are certain times in a person’s travels when they find the perfect corner of the planet at just the perfect time. The Foggia train station McDonald’s, where I’m writing this, is not one of them. However, yesterday afternoon I had one of those moments – no, hours – […]
WEDNESDAY, MAY 9 – VIESTE, ITALY For a tiny beach town, this place is as loud as Fort Lauderdale over spring break. It’s the celebration of Santa Maria di Marino, the patron saint of Vieste. I think every town in Italy has a patron saint, but I’ve never seen one as beloved as this Santa […]
TUESDAY, MAY 8 – VIESTE, ITALY Sometimes in travel you find yourself in such an idyllic place that you think you’re the only person in the world this happy. This is one of those times. I’m on the rooftop of Rocca Sul Mare, my hotel here high above the Adriatic Sea. The rooftop is barebones, […]
VIESTE, ITALY — I walked down the street with a jump in my step, a parch in my throat and a hunger in my stomach. It’s remarkable how much appetite you build lying on an Italian beach. Plus, it’s a lot of stress. No. 35 sunscreen or 15? Dante or “The DaVinci Code?”?And, when in Puglia, […]
If you’ve never heard of Molise, don’t worry. Few have. It’s by far the least-touristed of Italy’s 20 regions, getting only 482,000 visitors in pre-Covid 2018. It’s 55 percent mountains and the rest is mostly rural. It’s not set up for tourists. But for the adventurous — and the hungry — it’s a terrific place to discover another side of Italy. The countryside is beautiful and the food and wine are unique and excellent. It was a great birthday present to myself.
