A Trip to the Beach, Gallipoli

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It’s a quiet start today. We can do this because we are on holiday. On the suggestion of our hostess we decide to take a short drive to the beach at Gallipoli on the west coast of the Puglia peninsula. It is quite windy but fine and hot. Jane has packed her beach gear and sounds ready to head off. Better not keep her waiting.

A short drive from the apartment and we are on a four lane highway, not an autostrada. Maximum speed is 90 kph but some cars must be going nearly twice that speed. We won’t risk it because of the uncertainty of the road surface.

Gallipoli was settled by the Greeks and has many historic buildings. It seems there is a similarity to Siracusa, a city we visited in Sicily. Both cities have an island attached to the mainland by a causeway. We plan a short walk and a paddle.

We are directed down a narrow street towards the island. We hear a soft but unusual sound. It appears our right hand wing mirror brushed passed something. A quick look in the rear view mirror and there is no sign of an angry Italian. We drive on. We drive into a strange carpark but our intention is to drive on further. So we drive around the park again. Still no way of getting any further, so back over the causeway and we find another carpark.

No sooner have we parked than a car pulls up beside us and a gentleman starts a discussion with us in animated Italian. It appears we hit his wing mirror. I look at ours and say, “That’s okay, our mirror doesn’t have a scratch". He then shows us his broken mirror. “Wow, did we do that?” By now we both realize we don’t understand each other. But one thing is sure he wants money, lots of it. We show him our insurance papers and say we’ll ring Peugeot in Paris. A quick call and all I have to do is take his details and send the form away. He will be reimbursed. Suddenly he starts his car, waves to us and he is off.

This little incident spoilt our day at the beach but we look for another beach further along the coast. We drive into a sleepy area full of reasonably new apartments. In July and August this area would be bursting at the seams. Today we have a huge choice of parking spaces, unfortunately all are in the sun. A short walk to the waters edge and we find wind blown waves bringing in a lot of fine debris onto a rocky shore. Further along the coast we see a beautiful looking beach with its usual roped off areas. On our way there we attempt to round a small headland. Hats fly, sand is being blown about, a “fun” day at the beach we must say. Very quickly we both agree, “Lunch”.

After a wicked pastry and a cold Schweppes lemon we decide we are not ready for the beach today. Back at the apartment we reflect on our outing to Gallipoli. On a fine calm day it would be the place to be. Today the wind spoiled the occasion. As for our friend with his broken mirror, so far no repercussions. We wonder if another proud “owner” of a Peugeot with a red number plate will be accused of “breaking” our friend’s wing mirror. Who will know.

During our drive back to Lecce we notice small round stone structures, not the trulli houses found further north of here. We stop at one in an olive grove. We think it is something to do with the farm but not sure. We later find out they are pagghiara, a place for the farmer to leave his tools or shelter if necessary.

We arrive home to the sound of a burglar alarm blaring from somewhere nearby. So much for the rule about silence. This cacophony of sound continued until 9:45 pm. Suddenly there was silence. The dogs stopped barking, emergency service vehicles were finished for the night and the local children had finished their game of free-for-all football. Rules have to be obeyed.

We finish the day wandering through an enormous shopping centre with an attached Ipercoop supermarket. Amazing what we could have bought. We are sure we could have fitted out an entire apartment from this one shop. Perhaps we could have purchased our own washing machine for our travels, or a fridge, or a ...... To round off our relaxing day we stop for a hamburger in a large food court. We get to choose the fillings. A mountain of veges for the vegetarian burger, the same plus 200 gm steak (real meat) for the other. We munch our way through these delicious giant burgers. Eat your heart out Mr McD.

We round off the day with a Skype call to our daughter in New Zealand who has just returned from a three week adventure in the USA. We compare stories of our travels and agree, little incidents happen on holiday, something to talk about, but don’t let it become the major issue of the holiday. We’ll look back on today, laugh a lot, but will have learnt a lesson.

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Photos

Near Gallipoli
A stone pagghiara.

Near Gallipoli
A very old olive tree.