Advertisement
Published: April 16th 2009
The Porto
A view of one of the ancient gates or Porto into the old quarter of Brindisi. This is the view from the front of Gruit.6th day - Thursday
Today we got up late yet again. It was raining hard and it was dam-p coldish...hee hee hee. No sense in getting out of bed too early!
Today's goal was to go to Lecce, do some sightseeing, find an internet point, and take care of a problem with Sam's phone.
We departed for Lecce hopeful for a break in the weather and upon arrival it was still raining and everything was closed up for the afternoon break, doh! So we went to a local mall to see if we could resolve some of these issues and wait for the weather to improve - it did!
We found what appeared to be the only public phone in the mall and Sam contacted his phone company/European division. Meanwhile Beth and I went looking for a moka to take to our good friend Dan. Once you drink coffee Italiano style, it’s hard to drink it any other way. To my taste anything is just plain schiffo! In the meantime the rain stopped and yippee…the sun came out so we headed off to the historical center.
We wandered around the center just doing some casual sightseeing. Terri stopped in at a
All Star Lineup
The lineup of the very best microbrew produced in all of Italy. Every single one of Gruit’s beers is a winner
take my word for it. shoe store and bought a pair of leather boots for a spectacular price. There were only two pairs left in the style she wanted and they were selling them at a deep discount. One of the two sizes fit her…how swell is that. Ok, so the skies had cleared and after some warming sunshine it began to get dark and the temperatures plummeted. I swear that I could see my breath. We decided that it was too cold to continue.
The only problem was that after visiting the historical centre the late afternoon had turned to evening, shops had reopened and everything looked different. I missed the street that led us back to the car...gacked that one! After retracing our steps, we found the street that took us back to the car. Getting turned around can be easy to do when crisscrossing medieval streets.
After returning to Brindisi, Sara & Vincenzo had a special treat for us. A friend of Vincenzo's has opened up a micro-brew pub (and pizzeria, natch). They were excited about this place and in fact in earlier correspondence had been telling us about this place. They assured us that we would really like this place.
We
Hanging with the locals
Al recommends getting away from the tourist trail
the place was hopping
Al was feeling the groove and the locals were getting jiggy did, in fact we loved it. Gruit is a must stop for any beer lover that is passing through or by Brindisi, or anywhere in Puglia. They make killer beer! They use no preservatives and only the finest natural ingredients.
I like really good beer and I cannot rave enough about their beer. I liked every one of their beers and I particularly liked the rosso and the Weizen. Their pizza is very traditional and good eats when drinking that great beer.
To top off the evening, they had a live band that is very popular in the south because it plays traditional Italian folk music. It is a very lively music and it reminds me of Irish jigs and gypsy music.
The place was packed and people kept coming in steadily, on a Thursday night no less. There must have been close to a hundred folks inside the place as there was not a single table open.
When the music fired up people were getting up and dancing a traditional dance called the la pizzichietta. It is a very lively and fast paced dance. I wish I knew how to perform that dance because I would have joined in
Got Pizza?
Al eying the pizza Diavola
Al likes his pizza spicy
as my feets really wanted some action!
If you are ever in Puglia come to Brindisi toGruit - you can thank me later.
Note: You can visit their website at www.gruit.it to get more info.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 62; dbt: 0.0715s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
