We had another great lunch! Have I said the food is sooooo goooood here?!?!?!?!?
Until the late 1980's, the Sassi was still considered an area of poverty, since its dwellings were, and in most cases still are, uninhabitable and dangerous.
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Then, something we haven't seen in a long time, the SUN came out!!!
As we walked but to our bus we saw some fishing boats come in from a long day of fishing. We took pictures of some of their catch.
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Then we went to a Masseria that grows and processes olives into oil. Masseria is a farm with rural buildings particularly in Southern Italy. This family has about 300 olive trees. You'll see the old machinery used to process the olives.
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As you will see in the pictures, we came across women making Orecchiette (little ear shaped pasta), like their mother and grandmother before them, right on the street.
Alberolello is known for its cone-shaped houses called Trulli. It's a feature of this part of the Puglia region which gained UNESCO recognition as a unique building technique.
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Saint Nicholas' bones are kept in the Basilicaa of Saint Nicola, commissioned in 1089 to house the stolen relics of Bari's Patron Saint. We know Saint Nicolas as Santa Claus. The legends were built around him because he saved little children from harm and gave them gifts. Many places have him as their patron saint.
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We then went to our "Home-hosted" lunch. Local people of the town invite small groups of us to their homes and serve us lunch and let us ask questions about life in Italy and they ask us questions about our home. Delicious Food !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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The town is nestled on high sloping hillside and retains much of its picturesque medieval aspect. It and the countryside are beautiful.
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Urbino is a walled city in central Italy. It's known for the turreted, 15th century Ducal Palace (Duke's Palace).
Urbino is also a university town.
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We came back to Italy from the country of San Marino. Pesaro is a small town on the Adriatic Sea, down the mountain from San Marino.
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It is a mountainous micro-state surrounded by north-central Italy. Its capital, also named San Marino, is a medieval walled town with narrow cobblestone streets.
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We had lunch in an old taverna. Excellent as all Italian food is!!
For dinner tonight on the boat, we all dressed up in our Halloween costumes.
After dinner, some local musicians will come on board to play local "balera" music. I think Doug and I will be in bed by then!!
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Ravenna was the fifth-century seat of the Roman Empire and later a major city during the Byzantine era.
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We'll see how tomorrow is. Ravenna is supposed to be beautiful!!
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Oh, by the way, Torcella brags that 2000 years have passed since Attila, the Hun, stopped at their island in search of new conquests. In more recent times, a convalescent Ernest Hemingway walked the lanes lapped by the sea and drew inspiration for one of his most exciting novels. (They don't say which one). Hemingway must have loved to travel because he was everywhere; kind of like "Kilroy was here".
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The second island we visited was Torcello. It is very small with about 27 residents. Visitors come to visit the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, with its Venetian-Byzantine mosaics.
Again we could not visit it because the area was still flooded.
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The Island of Burano is known for its brightly colored fishermen's houses and its casual eateries serving seafood from the lagoon. No one was eating today though. All of the locals were busy pumping water from their homes, restaurants and other places of business and sweeping the flood water from the streets into the drains. It was so sad to see all of us tourists with no place to spend our money. We had reservations to eat lunch there but had to cancel.
We were kept warm and safe by our tour guide. We walked around St Mark's Square as you saw yesterday; had our lunch of pizza in the rising water and were back in our hotel by 1pm. High tide was about 2pm. Our hotel had been newly renovated against flooding; so like I said we were warm and safe!!
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And because of this flooding, boats can't get under most of the bridges so no gondola rides!
And we won't be able to visit one of the nearby islands tomorrow. In fact, the water is so high that our Grand Circle Cruise boat, the Artemus, can't dock anywhere near Venice. We'll be bussed out tomorrow to meet our boat south in Reevena.
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Our tour guide was nice enough to get us all water boots to keep our feet dry as we walk the streets of the city. You'll see the pictures of the boots, all very colorful; and of us trudging through the water filled alleys. We were instructed to walk carefully so as not to make a wake that would make a wave of water attack someone walking nearby.
Well, we are here at this very special time!!!! And there's more!!!
Not only does the water in the canals rise and fall with the tide of the Adriatic Sea, there's been a full moon which increases the rise and fall. There is also a big storm moving through this part of the country, bringing with it a lot of rain and wind.
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Subsidence is occurring here in Venice right now!! Subsidence is the gradual lowering of the surface of Venice. Venice is sinking!!! We're going to hear a lecture on it tonight. If they've figured out how to stop it, I'll let you know.
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We start our tour of Venice tomorrow in the rain. Sylvia gave us all rain boots to wear. She said with the storm and the tide, the water could be well up to our knees. Doug will take some pictures of our new rain gear.
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