Bussoli

Phillip and Sherry left early Sunday morning from the Marina house. We slowly got going and we went to Michelina and Franco's home for afternoon dinner. After dinner Vincenzo, Anna, Lorenzo, Nicola, Sue and myself went to San Salvo to ride the go karts. Vincenzo won the race between Sue, Adrian and himself. The go karts were fast, challenging and competitive. Lots of fun.

The next day, Monday, Sue stayed at the Marina house to organize and clean up. I went to help Franco with the grape harvest. Between 3 person; Franco, his uncle and myself we picked over 400 kg of red sangiovese grapes. We finished a particular area earlier than expected. Franco was very happy.

Garagano Today Vincenzo took us all to Gargano. We travelled along the autostrata for 1 hour until we turned into the Penisula of Gargano. It was a beautiful sunny day and we travelled along the coast past Peschi and onto Vieste. Before getting to Vieste we stopped at an Olive Oil production facility. They produce oil olive using both the traditional and modern methods. A very professional, organized and clean operation. We took pictures, bought some olive oil and other locally made products. We then proceeded to Vieste and the historical centre where Vincenzo took us to a restaurant called "I'll DRAGONE". The restaurant is located in a large grotto(cave) and is dimly light. The place is unbelievable. Romantic and some of the best food I have ever had. The owner gave us a private of his cantina where we sampled some of his special grappa.

Mountain Trip-Sept 29

Vincenzo took Phillip, Sherry, Sue and myself to the National Park of Abruzzo. We drove to Castel D'Sangro, Barrera, Scanno and Castrovalva. We saw two beautiful lakes, traveled through a small mountain pass and visited a small hill top town where the habitants are 18 women and 4 men, men all in their seventies and eighties. The bishop from Rome came the day we were there to say mass. Once mass was over the whole town, all 22 persons, went to the only restaurant in the town to have dinner. Two of the men asked Vincenzo if he wanted to play cards in the piazza? Vincenzo said he would came back to visit them another time.

After having a restful sleep in the Rome apartment I got up an went to get some cappuccinos and espresso at the nearby bar. Zia Guiseppina arrived at the apartment at 1100am. We proceed to the Metro and took the Metro to the bus station where we boarded the auto bus to Lanciano and Casabordino. Seeing the country this was great and relaxing. We arrived at Hotel Calgary that evening. Zio gave us the use of a small car and the we proceeded to the Marina at Fossacesia where the Mennas were waiting for us.

The next morning we saw the sunrise on the ocean, visited Zio Annunizato, Donato D'Alessandro, and traveled back to San Luca. All this time Zia Maria was with us.

All is good. We are both a little tired from being up for 24 hours from starting at Dalhousie at 4pm with the Tonino DeSimone rent a ride to the airport and arriving at the Rome airport 24 hours later and meeting the Vice President of Alitalia, Carlo Bussoli, who graciously drove us to the Rome apartment. Exhausted, we slept very well.

In between the start and end we experienced the congestion at Heathrow Airport, its tight security that caused us to miss our connecting flight to Munich, thereby requiring us to try to go standby on a later flight. We were unsuccessful on standby and then we booked a flight to Frankfurt, connecting to Rome. While waiting for that flight I was paged by Heathrow customer service to advise me that someone had picked up our boarding passes. That was a relief. Ignorance was bliss at that moment. While walking to our gate the people who found our tickets came up to us and introduced themselves as the persons who found our boarding passes. A little bit of stress for about 2-3 hours, coupled with the long journey made for a tiring flight to Rome.