Camel Wresting weekend

Our friends took a weekend getaway from Istanbul and joined us for a trip to Efes. We rented a car drove down the coast spending the afternoon picniking amongst the ruins.

By mid afternoon we made our way up to Şirince for lunch at our favorite spot. High on the hill Pervin Teyze's locanta offers delicious home cooking and family hospitality with a panoramic view of the town.

Today is the big event near Kuşadası- camel wrestling! As we drove towards the event we could see the smoke rising and the roar of the crowd. These people know how to enjoy this sport. The "tailgate party" is brought into the stands, tables, chairs, tableware... everything.  Everyone is bbq'ing, playing music, dancing and enjoying the event. The wresting is a mating competition. First the female camel is paraded around exciting the male camels.  Two male camels are brought into the arena and with spit flying they use the necks to try to knock or push each other down. After the take down the shamed camel charges out of the arena. This all leads up to the main event. After a number of bouts the last camel standing get his gal.

Camel Sausage anyone??

Alberobello

Feb 6

     We are off to Alberobello, a small town in the in the providence of Bari in Puglia Italy. Known for it's Trulli style houses and home to Rena's ancestors.  It is a 4 hour train ride. We pack some travel picnic supplies of wine, cheese, bread and prosciutto and are ready for our trip.  The drive down the coast is beautiful and soon we start to spot the Trulli homes dotting the landscape.

  Our first stop, lunch at a roadside Trulli trattoria, LaNicchia, for our first taste of orecchiette, local hand made pasta. Winding our way though the narrow allies of Alberobello we find our UNESCO World Heritage Trulli pension updated with heated tile floors.

     Feb 7

We start the day strolling the streets. The building style dates back to the 16th century and these cassede (small houses) were built stone by stone without the use of lime/cement in order to be dismantled during periodic inspections of the area, thus avoiding the unfair taxation of the local inhabitants. Today there are over 1000 of these homes in the tourist area of Rione Monti district, many still residential, and over 500 mostly residential homes in the Aia Piccola district. Trulli a beautiful place!

Our plan for the week is to drive around southern Italy.  It is a beautiful day and we head out in the afternoon, picnic packed, to the town of Ostuni.  A stunning town built on the hillside overlooking the Mediterranean.  We find a park and enjoy a picnic before heading off to old town for some sites cobbled streets and churches. Then back on the road for a coastal drive north to Monopoli for a little touring and some ice cream.

 The road back is windy through the mountains until the rolling hills near Alberobello and country Trulli home start to pop up. We stop along the roadside to get a closer look before heading back for dinner.

Feb 8
Today we head south to Lecce, nick named Florence of the South.  Baroque architecture of limestone, cobble stone streets and Basilica di Santa Croce (Church of the Holy Cross) sits high on the hillside overlooking the Mediterranean.

Feb 9
We are off to Matera to see the cave houses of the ancient Sassi. Some of the houses are simply dug out caverns that have been inhabited for 9000 years.

Feb 10

Today we stay in Alerobello and enjoy the morning. In the afternoon we find the local graveyard and  search for Rena's family. It took a bit of time but sure enough we found her Iocovazzi roots and paid our respects. Quite a special day!

Napoli ~ the home of pizza

Feb 4

View from hotel

We spent the morning in Pigneto, Rome at a street cafe enjoying an espresso in the sunshine before heading off to Naples. The train from Rome to Naples takes about two hours so we are there by noon. We have a pension near Piazza Dante which is a great central location. Today we decide to walk the city and see what we find. Naples is fantastic. The allies are smaller and a bit more medieval and the scooters are insane. It's a little grittier than Rome and we came to describe it as Rome on speed. We just started walking. Turning corners, finding new sites and dodging scooters. We ended up by the Nuovo Castle at sunset.

traffic

Galleria Umberto

Nuovo Castle

Piazza del Plebiscito

We know our dinner location is quite far from here, so we start making our way back. We head up to Toledo, Piazza del Plebiscito and through the Galleria Umberto. Finally reaching the pest pizza in town...the famous Pizzeria Starita. There is a line out the door and an hour wait but time passes quickly with the owners bring seasoned fried dough out to ease the hunger. Well worth the wait and we eat our fair share of pies.

Outside Starita Pizzeria

The birth place of pizza

 Feb 5
The next day we hit the streets again aiming for the castle situated above Napoli. We know of  funicular that take us up. We weave through the allies we realize we must have missed the station. So we stop into a cafe for a mid morning amaretto and ask the owner. As luck would have it, the station is just around the corner. Up we go for a  a spectacular view of the city.

 The rest of the day is spent finding our way back down ending up right back at Piazza Dante. We grabbed some panini and beers and sat in the sunny square to enjoy our lunch. Feeling refreshed, we try fallowing a walking tour from our travel book and quickly loose our way.  Which is easy to do in the narrow, windy allies. We closed the book and fallow our feet, and wouldn't you know we end up at our desired location. Fratelli Cafe. Famous for their chocolates and pastries located in Piazza San Domenico. Ahhh espresso and chocolate the perfect afternoon pick me up.

Before dinner we walk through the famous street of nativity workshops, Via San Gregorio Armeno and find what we are looking for right under San Paolo Maggiore...limoncello! This little shop shares its walls with ancient Napoli walls and they make a variety of liquors in the back room fabbrica. One of the interesting creations is made from arugula and it is delicious.

Via San Gregorio Armeno

Limon'e Fabbrica

Our last dinner in Naples we find this family style kitchen. Luckily there is one table available and we receive a warm welcome. It is full mostly of local clientele and the cook is at home, taking time to visit familiar faces. And the food... mama mia itza delicious!

La Taverna Buongustaio