September 2^nd 2013

Out onto the main arterial to Pompei, leaving Naples to go east to the province of Pulia, Mount Vesuvius looks as if it’s smoking!

but we have to negotiate these long lines of traffic in between apartment blocks which line the whole of that coastline

1.00 Euro a kilo for the melons and lemons, we almost have time to buy them out of the car window as we queue up on the traffic!

On the high plateaus in the middle of Italy, the Italians have place loads of wind generators

The Motorway swiftly takes us past many hilltop villages including Cassino of second world war fame, pretty villages and  castles of the region of Campania over to the Coastal city of Barri on the Adriatic coast

We stop for lunch at Barri – but find it not particularly interesting – we much preferred the area we had book to spend the next 4 nights close to Locorotondo in Puglia

This ancient little town is built in a circular fashion on top of a hill, and is surrounded by farmland, on which sit many little stone farm houses with conical tops

I had booked one called Casa e Cucina on the web, which had been converted into guest accommodation by the owner, a farmer who had lived here for 3 generations, and had married a delightful Welsh lady.

We were delighted to find it just the perfect place for us to unwind and relax and visit this fascinating area for the next 4 days.

With figs from the trees, grapes on the vine growing up the ‘casa’ and fresh melon

to complement the Parma ham, we had the most perfect breakfast each morning.

Plus a walk through the vineyards and fields around the area, just on our doorstep.

The view from the top of the hill  at Locorotondo shows all the little white stone ‘Trulli’ dotted around in the fields. 

The wine in this region is called simply ‘Riserva di Locorotondo’

The evocative name of the village is exactly as it sounds.  A center of concentric streets, low houses with the typical pointed roof and whitewashed, originally built to fight against the sun and the pestilence.  The main profiled stone entrances and railings and give a charming welcome to this house.

The small square outside the Santa Maria la Greca church