Day 38 - Otranto Loop

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

Actual Distance Walked: 9.0km, Actual Time Taken: 2h 18m
Planned Distance: 9.0km, Estimated Time: 2h 24m

Today's hike involved taking 3 trains to the town of Otranto and then doing a loop around the town.  The return trip just required 2 trains.  

 

I was a little worried about getting the train(s) to Otranto without messing up one of the changes.  However, there were about a dozen of us doing the 3 train shuffle to the town and the railway staff were very good about making sure we all got off at the right stop and onto the correct train for the next leg.  It has been interesting to see how the quality of the rolling stock changes as you go further south and head for smaller towns.  Here is the train back from Otranto.  

The historic centre of Otranto is pretty enough.  There is a large castle and the historic centre is inside massive walls.  There is also a church, of course.  However, it is clearly a big seaside resort.  All the shops inside the city walls were almost all either restaurants specialising in seafood, shops selling tacky souvenirs or shops selling cheap, polyster sun dresses made in India.  Fortunately, there were also several gelateria including one that was really quite good.

The hike today took me quickly out of town and along the coast, which was lovely.  I was by myself so I could walk at my own pace - which turned out to be much the same as before.  The particular route I was doing is obviously popular as I saw several other people both ahead and behind me on the path.  At one point there was a traffic jam.

Observe the sheep dog hard at work.

 

 

I got back to Otranto with plenty of time to spare.  I was worried about missing my return train as the services to the town are fairly sparse.  I needn't have worried.  I puttered about the town for a bit and then sat on a bench at the seashore but it was overcast and windy today.  Pleasant enough for walking but a bit cool for just sitting around.  I headed off to the railway station, figuring if I'm just going to sit and read a book I might as well do it there and have no risk of missing my train.  It turned out to be a good plan as there was a garden at the station that was planted with orange blossom trees which were in flower, so I had somewhere pleasant to sit that was out of the wind.

I'm off to Palermo tomorrow via Rome.  I fly out of Brindisi airport which is about 50km away.  I have booked a shuttle to take me to the airport, as a taxi would be ruinuously expensive.   The shuttle company uses minivans and picks up as many as half a dozen passengers for each trip.  When I booked online the website promised me that someone would let me know exactly when and where my pick-up would be 24 to 48 hours in advance.  Well, when I got back to the hotel from Otranto this afternoon I still hadn't heard from them.   They hadn't replied to the text or email I sent either.  I got the hotel receptionist to call them for me.  They said they will be picking me up from in front of the hotel at 9:10am.  It would have been nice if they'd let me know that!  I've just read an angry review from someone else who had their pick-up time shifted from 9:30am to 9:10am without anyone telling him.  He missed it of course.  I think I'll make sure I'm out front a good 30 minutes early just to be on the safe side.

I was supposed to have dinner with Kim&Keith tonight but Kim is still feeling poorly.  She swears it is just a cold.  I hope, for all our sakes, that she is correct.  I had dinner at Ristorante Volo, which I'd had my eye on.  It is a bit more upmarket than K&K's usual fare but it had a fixed price menu of a primi & secondi of local specialities for a very reasonable rate.  Of course, once you added in the cost of water, wine, dessert and the cover charge the final bill was about double the fixed price, but still well within my budget.  

For my primi I had sagne ncannualate with a tomato and ricotta sauce.  This is a variety of fresh pasta that is twisted into ribbons to resemble the baroque architecture of the town.  For my secondi I had capocollo from Martina Franca with fresh parmigiano reggiano.  I had assumed this would be the cut of pork used to make capocollo but roasted or cooked in some other way.  I was wrong.  It just was a plate of salami and cheese with some rocket.  I was happy to eat it but it is the sort of thing I would have had for an antipasto.  For dessert I had spumone which is a moulded ice cream which traditionally has layers of chocolate, pistachio and almond.   All very tasty.

Even though I was dining solo I didn't get much chance to practice my Italian.  There were three other tables occupied when I arrived but all by French speaking tourists.  The French are the most common (non-Italian) tourists in Puglia for some reason.  Some time later a pair of American women came in and were seated nearby.  Americans tend to speak more loudly than most and there is something about their accent that makes their voices carry.  Not long after they'd been seated the Frenchman sitting next to them leant over and said "Excuse me mademoiselle but we aren't interested in your conversation."  They were mortally offended and got the waiters to move them to a table on the other side of the restaurant.  I think everyone in my side of the restaurant heaved a sigh of relief.  It was a very dull conversation.