Six Month after Portugal Steph and I tried to recreate the same image as we left for Italy. The timing of this trip is based on the writers strike shutting down the film business.

After a VERY long flight with delays and a connection we finally made it to Puglia. The Sixt car rental guy stayed to help us. It was the most beat up dented car we have ever rented. But at least no one would try to steal it or break in. :) We arrived in our masserai outside Monopoli at 1am after 26 hours of traveling. Yikes.

This is our ***Trulli*** Masseria outside Monopoly.

Trulli Genius Loci Dimore

MISC INFO BEFORE I CONTINUE:

Hotels in Italy:

Some hotels are cheaper if you book direct.
We preferred our hotels to the AirBnbs

Restaurants in Italy:

Download “The Fork” ap. https://www.thefork.com
Some Cities also use OpenTable.
“Condo” is the term for the bill. Ask if you need to pay at the counter.
90% of all businesses take tap cards or Apple Pay
Service is intentionally slow. Take your time. Enjoy.
No one tips. The bills have a service charge.

Cars/Parking in Italy:

Rent as small of a car as you can. The roads are SMALL.
Don’t plan to drive in the bigger or older cities.
If you are using your credit cards insurance, make sure they cover the places in Italy you are headed- Amex Platinum does not cover Italy
Blue lines mean paid parking. Look for the meter.
Yellow lines mean locals only parking
White lines mean free parking

Cash! when you land make sure you have cash. Smaller businesses prefer cash. We only took out 300.00$ for 2 weeks. That was perfect.

Credit Cards-

Most places take Visa not American Express.
Make sure you have a card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees!!!

Masseria - Trulli Genius Loci Dimore

DAY 1: MONOPOLI and POLIGANO A MARE

SLEPT: Masseria - Trulli Genius Loci Dimore

Our 1st full day! We slept in and then spent the morning wandering the old port of Monopoli and having lunch there. It’s a cute little town right on the water. Day 1 is always the hardest. So, we went back for a nap. :)

That night went out to dinner in Poligano a Mare. A beautiful little town built into cliffs along the sea. The old town is super pretty with winding alleys and dramatic views. There is a famous cave restaurant in the cliff, we didnt go there. The food is supposed to be horrible. The pictures looked better that the place… But what do I know. I was getting over the flu.

DAY 2 - Ostuni and Locorotondo

This was our day to visit small towns. Also what Steph and I have been referring to as our Cruise Ship day. You know, small towns short stops. Did I mention how much Stephane loved driving all the tiny roads.

Ostuni

Our 1st Stop was Ostuni. It’s an amazing little all white town that looks like it should be in Greece. It has all kinds of steps and levels and alleys. They have a HUGE market on Saturday. Maybe too big. We stopped for a panini in town. It was just Ok, but our fault for not being more adventuresome.

Locorotondo

We headed over to Locorotondo… Sooo cute So so cute. Voted Puglia’s prettiest small town. It is .We should have eaten here. All the restaurants looked amazing. Will come back and stay here for sure.

Then we drove more wonderful small back roads back to our room to cook some of the food we bought at the market.

DAY 3: DRIVE Alberobello/Craco/Matera

SLEEP: MATERA: Pianelle Resort

Today we drove to Matera, We took the long way, with a stop at the the Trulli town- Alberobello…. It is VERY famous for its MANY MANY Trulli. It’s super cute, but Probably the most touristic place we visited on our trip.

Alberobello

From Alberobello, we stopped at a cute empty beach town. Then had lunch at We stopped at a cool cliff top town Pisticci for lunch. Then we even did a tour of a ghost town Craco.

Craco

Craco is an Italian ghost town. It looks super old but isn’t that old. It fell apart in an earthquake. Since MANY movies have been filmed there. Most famous would be Quantum of Solace . If you decide to go, check the opening times. They only are open a few days a week and only certain months. You have to go with a guide.

Matera-

Eventually we checked into a beautiful suite in a CAVE!! Pianelle Resort …We had dinner at a place recommended by the hotel. Forgot the name… Sorry. Pretty yummy. This town is awesome to wander.

DAY 4 Matera- WOW! PIANELLE RESORT

SLEEP: MATERA: Pianelle Resort

Our hotel was amazing It had 2 showers. Stephane booked all of our hotels, and this one really stood out. Stay there if you can.

This town is soooo cool and very old. We wandered everywhere. It is thought to be one of the oldest human settlements, dating back to prehistoric times.

We woke up and after a great breakfast we wandered the town. We have been trying to do walking tours in the city we visit. It really helps to learn the history from a local. After LOT AND LOTS OF STEPS we had THE BEST PIZZA and BRUSCHETTA for dinner at Più Sud YUM.

Day 5: LONG DRIVE TO SICILY.- TAORIMINA

SLEEP TAORMINA

Ok this was a LONG DRIVE. We drove from Matera to Taormina. We even navigated the ferry, and stopped at a MacDonalds…. No judgement… I was STARVING. And it is quite the adventure to order in Italian. Eventually we ended up in Taormina. Arriving in Taormina was crazy. The roads all say in Italian “do not enter”. I think :P … Cute town. LOTS of tourists. It was the filming location for White Lotus so it was packed. The prices are higher. No wonderful food to report. BUT, I love mint Gelato. It is not Italian, but I love it and they have it there. We only Spent one night in Taormina… too crowded for me. Our place was right at the entrance… FANTASTIC location. .

Day 6: RAGUSA.-Dimora Bonafede Ibla Design Rooms

Today was another long day. We woke up on Taormina and did a quick walk back thru the streets before the hordes of tourists arrived. Early in the morning is when all the trucks and delivery’s happen. But, it’s much better than the bus loads. Then we drove 4 hours (it is supposed to be 2 but this is Sicily and the roads are small and passing sucks.- also Apple Maps suck. It took us to a random place —the owner of our hotel had to come and find us. LOL

Then we checked into our fancy artists design hotel.

Dimora Bonafede Ibla Design Rooms… AMAZING, 8 Via Salita Distretto Ragusa 97100 Italy

This is in the smaller side of Ragusa we walked to the main square and had amazing Arancini in the main square with local beer. ‎⁨Piazza Duomo - Food & Beverage⁩, ⁨Sicily⁩, ⁨Ragusa⁩, ⁨Isole⁩, ⁨Italy⁩

Then wandered around. For dinner we had one of our favorite dinners in Sicily Osteria Imperfetta

We loved this town.. Could have stayed here a week.

DAY 7: RAGUSA.-Dimora Bonafede Ibla Design Rooms

Today we have a whole day in Ragusa. We woke up to a wonderful breakfast prepared by the hotels owner. Carlo. This hotel is a small artist boutique hotel with only 3 rooms.

We walked around and checked out the town until a big thunderstorm hit. It was AWESOME to see. We ran back to our hotel and Carlo cracked open some local wine and snacks. It was great to get to know him and learn about his journey in designing this wonderful space.

DAY 8: Noto/Ortigia/SYRACUSE.-AIR BNB

Wow is was a beautiful drive from Ragusa to the beach. We took a stop for lunch in Noto and then drove to Ortigia

Our place was well located but not remarkable in Ortigia. The most remarkable thing about it is that someone famous was staying there. There were Italian “secret service” agents in the halls.. Kinda cool.

Arriving in town we realized it was a national holiday and we had to park about a 15 min walk from the hotel. It seemed PACKED but once we got off the main shopping street it was empty. This day we had reservations recommended by a friend of Stephane’s- Don. He and his husband had been to a very small Sicilian place outside of the main town. It was really good. I had pork roasted on chestnuts and honey. Stephane had some parpedelle with meat sauce. It was totally a locals family place. LOVED it. But it was packed so when all the big Sicilian families arrived it was hard to get service. We passed on desert since we had been deserted. LOL

DAY 9: Ortigia -AIR BNB

We got up early and went for a walk and found a lovely little pastry/ coffee shop. Then went back to our room and chilled out to wait for our Air BNB experience. It was a street food walks … YUP more food. We met up and it turned out to be just 3 of us. The other was a new Mom from Vienna whose partner was nice enough to babysit so she could go on this tour. We stopped 1st back to the pastry shop Stephane and I had found…. Guess we didn’t do so bad by ourselves. :) there we had a local traditional frozen coffee. It was sweet and delicious. Then we headed to try some pistachio and some ragu arrancino (rice balls) … trying to remember everything is hard. ….We walked as Dario pointed out historical places. I mean BC history crazy.

We went to the market and tried the pistachio spread and fresh Sicilian tomatos 🍅 I bought some spices and stuff. Then we tried giant famous sandwiches. They were delicious but HUGE. From here we tried Granita (this is Sicilian gelato. Not milk based. ) then chocolate. I know I am missing something….

Walking food tour and dinner at pizza place.

DAY 10: Ortigia -AIR BNB

OMG all we did was eat today. We got up and had pastry’s and LARGE cappuccinos in town then walked around a bit. For lunch we drove to a small fishing village about 45 min south called Marzememi… and ate lunch at the local harbor. I looked up this village on a travel blog I like called Handbaggage only. They recommended trying tuna anywhere here. Apparently the town is known for tuna. This is the main fishing village in Sicily for tuna. Steph got the special Tuna. It was seared and crusted with pistachio. OMG yum. I got the salami plate so we could share both.

For dinner we went to Davé. I think this would be a lovely little place. However I asked for indoor without realizing a party for 12 was about to arrive. They were all girls and soooo loud. We tried 2 pasta dishes and a salad. They were both good. But sadly the loudness of the party next to us made us eat fast and leave fast.

DAY 11/12/13: LONDON

Leaving was a bit crazy. We had an hour drive from Oritiga (Siracuse) to the airport. We rented a car with Sixt and of course Sixt is in a completely different location than all the other rental car returns. After we returned the car and made our way into the airport for some great airport coffee (no really it was yummy) and some pastry. Now we are sitting on our delayed flight to London. So far I havent been that impressed with BA. We went to London to visit friends. It was lovely.

ITALY 2023