DAY 18: White Dresses, Beach and Ruins

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Although there was nothing on the schedule today, it ended up being a very full and exciting day!



Paola has a friend with a store here in Otranto. She sells beautiful fabrics and linens and clothing. We all want to look Italian and have white linen dresses! (Will we ever wear them in the US?) We met Paula at 12:00 to go to the store. Such beautiful cottons dresses!!! Several of them went out the door with our group! Martha and I did not find our white dresses… but the hunt was on!




Paola and Dagmar and I went to the beach, the "Bahia di Turkis". This beach was the landing site of the Turks in 1480 when they captured Otranto. It is a 20 minute ride in the motorized cart (they probably go 40-50 mph), then a 30 minutes walk through a beautiful wood. The beaches there are sand, very shallow, lined with small cliffs. It was gorgeous. We swam, ate our lunches, swam again. The water was warm compared to Otranto. We returned to Otranto in the same manner.




In the late afternoon, we walked to "Ipogeo". This is an underground structure built in the Paleochristian era. We entered through a locked gate (we got the key from the woman who owns the hotel there). The corridor was 33 meters long and ended up in a circular open-to-the-sky dome. It was erie… you walked along the very dark corridor, lined with carved out niches several rows high, and arrived at the sun lit center. Some think it was a burial chamber, like a cemetery, others think it was a sacrifical site. The site is "free" but you have to buy a drink on the terrace of the hotel. We had a drink and walked back to Otranto, 30 min. walk.




Martha and I went back to the studio for a while to work. Then we went home and made mushroom pasta, which was ok, not our greatest. But a little glass of lemoncello makes up for the rest. It was a fun day!




More Photos Below!

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