An Andrews Adventure: DAY 81

Friday 30 September 2011

One last kypseli-keepsake from Greece

After a long and arduous journey on the ferry to Brindisi, losing one of our cell phones was not what we wanted to start the day with. It was first realized that the phone was missing when we were all in the car ready to exit the boat, and though Nicole ran back to the spot where we had slept, her search was in vain.

View from their city apartment

A customs officer mutely handed us our passports back after inspecting them and we were glad to be on our way to see Greg and Fiorella. It was a pretty drive to their town of Ceglie Messapica and we decided to stop at a small cafe for coffee and croissants. Our friends were on their way to meet us, so we explored the city during that time and walked its narrow, cobblestone streets, admiring its church and castle. Our timing was just in sync with the town's siesta, so we had no choice but to window shop in all the closed stores.

Our car, their car

Fresh cactus juice from Greg and Fiorella's plants

An old stone wall expert working for Greg and Fiorella explained he had "****ed his back"
because of all the years he spent bending over and lifting stones

We were met by Greg who took us to their apartment in the city, heated year round by the 150 year old bakery below. The smell was excruciatingly tempting. Saying goodbye to the city, we left for their home out in the country and got a tour of the grounds and home, which were earth-friendly to the core, "Everything has a purpose," Fiorella said. After enjoying fresh, homemade cactus fruit juice, we settled into one of the trulis.

truli-style

We went into town for dinner, and while Greg and Fiorella took care of some business at their apartment we walked through the town again, but with all stores open and welcoming. We had been needing a lighter for our portable gas stove, so we stopped into a store with assorted sundries. There were a bunch of great ceramic plates and bowls with a folk-art style rooster on each piece, including a solitary bowl which, after some deliberating, we purchased! We told the storekeeper we were from LA and his eyes widened. We let him know the bowl and all its counterparts were beautiful, and at the very end he threw in a matching milk pitcher, no cost. He asked us to say hello to LA for him, which we promised we would.

Style is not lacking for Italians, for everyone out that night, young and old, was his own Dapper Dan.

It was a curious thing we saw sitting in the piazza: two old men seemed to be walking right to us, but just as they came upon our bench, they turned on their heels and walked in the opposite direction. We looked at each other, wondering what in the world we had done to offend them, but just when they had reached the other side of the square they turned around again and walked back in our direction. Looking around the entire square we noticed other pairs of men doing the same thing, and it dawned on us: they were doing “laps.” We told Greg and Fiorella about it later, and laughing they said it’s a common thing the men do, in their town only, on that piazza only.

"Lap men"

Our friends’ first two restaurant choices were closed, but we happily went to a place they lovingly called “Grandma’s Kitchen” where we had an antipasto extravaganza. Ordering two of this 12+ dish option for five people was more than enough, so much so that we didn’t even order a main course. But had a cornucopia of local liqueurs instead (this included walnut liqueur and limoncello, among others). It was at times difficult to concentrate on dinner while a steamy soap opera played loudly on the TV behind us, but the food and company was so exquisite that we somehow managed.