We left Sicily by short ferry from Messina to Villa San Giovanni in Calabria. Our first stop was Tropea, inspired by the excellent cafe of that name in Russell Square which is run by a family from the town. Tropea is perched on a cliff top with a series of the tightest hairpin bends ever manoeuvred, tricky even for small cars let alone the Wildervan but we did it!
From there we drove to lovely Lecce where we fell for its Baroque beauty, winding streets, cool cafes and odd shaped piazzas.
The weather has changed significantly with a huge drop in temperature, wind and rain so we rented a rooftop apartment between the new and old town. But it takes a lot to stop the urge for an ice cream even with the temperature at ten degrees at 10.30pm.
The wild flowers here are glorious with fields full of poppies.
And the towns are full of flowering trees which have a wonderful heart scent. Here’s one in Otranto.
The countryside between the white hilltop towns Ostuni, Locorotondo and Martina Franca is full of tens of thousands of trulli, originally built of dry stone so they could be rapidly dismantled to avoid the taxman. Now they’re being done up largely for English buyers, so many that the locals call it Trullishire. It’s very hobbitlike.
Next stop an olive grove outside the white city of Ostuni. The owner founded Telcom in Italy and has now retired to study medieval history and run an olive grove in which he allows a few camper vans. So we’ve spent four lovely days surrounded by 1000 year old olive trees. Here’s the view from bed in our van.
Diana’s drawing of lemons harks back to Sicily and Calabria where there were thousands of orange and lemon trees which flower and fruit at the same time. We bought the lemons at Ostuni’s market.
Tomorrow we go to Brindisi to catch the ferry to Greece after nearly 6 amazing weeks in Italy from Alps to Sicily to Italy’s most Eastern point in Puglia.
