Adventures Italiano 😀

Lecce followed by Locrotondo

The pictures in first section below were taken on another day trip to Lecce on the train. This city is referred to as the "Florence of the South" and has beautiful architecture.

Amphitheater recently uncovered and being restored 

On Saturday we started our way back to Bari (where we will fly out from later this week). We had a two day layover in  another white jewel of a town called LOCOROTONDO (also perched up high with quite a few steps). It is a much smaller city than Ostuni and very quaint, as well as surrounded by luminous shades of green fields as we are more inland. 

We had a rather stressful trip getting here, using the Italian bus system which is not as reliable or clear as the train system has been. This is the part of being in Italy that forces you to go with the flow which, when you don't speak the language, adds a whole other level of trust to the experience! 

Very thankful for the protection ❤️ surrounding us and that we didn't end up stranded in the small town along the way, where we didn't know where to catch the connecting bus (no marked bus stops) nor did any of the few locales out on the street know where to direct us (we got dropped of by one bus during siesta time). They were incredibly kind but just didn't know.  We had walked up and down the streets trying to figure out where it might be and we literally had 2 minutes left to find the stop.

By what I am calling a Divine intervention, we spotted the bus as it was zooming by us - me flagging him down like the frantic tourista I was! He waved 'no' at me but reconsidered (probably when he saw the desperate look on my face) and very kindly stopped the bus in the middle of the road and let us on. 

His whole family will be blessed and prosper I hope with the copious amounts of love we sent to him in gratitude for changing his mind - as there were no other buses that day after this one. GRACIE MILLE ❤️🙏❤️. 

(The irony of this trip was it was only a 20 minute drive to our next stop but the conveniences we know in big cities like Uber or a taxi didn't exist here!).

Anyways as you will see from the following photos our end destination LOCOROTONDO is very beautiful. 

Infamous white trulli buildings characteristic of this area

Sunday morning mass following the Pope's funeral - with a beautiful children's choir performing. It was very heartwarming to listen to and feel the fullness in the church. 

Smiling again after our safe arrival 🙏 

And today we have just arrived in Bari - a few shots of the countryside along the the way. Miles upon miles of olive trees.