We arrived in Trani on the 16th of May after a full day motoring and were lucky to have a spot there as, given the weather, not a lot of boats went out and visitors’ places for a boat like ours are not many given the size of the harbour. We loved being there as the marina is situated at the heart of the old town - when entering the marina you have a magnificent view on the Romanesque Cathedral and its impressive bell tower on one side and a view of the Arch leading to a beautiful viewpoint of the city. The castle is also interesting - it was built like many others by Frederick II. While wandering along the harbour street we saw a few fish stands with fishes and shrimps super fresh as still alive !!! . We decided to buy some fresh shrimps and cook them on the same night. We did so following a recipe from the Chef of El Fico bar who is a friend of our new friend Luigi (who coordinates works for boat owners in this marina and happens to be a racing sailor and hence Roberto got along with him very well and they happen to know a lot of people in common in the sailing world and to have done a number of similar races !). In this “Fico bar” we discovered a new cocktail based on gin which I loved and hence which Roberto will have to make me now as we were granted the recipe… :)

Luigi proved indeed very helpful as the next day he organised for a specialist to come on the boat and fix some air conditioning issue which we were all happy about - even if till now we used the air conditioning as heater more than as refresher…

Going out of the harbour and as it was SUNNY - yes the real SUN came out - we saw a couple of the “trabucco” perched on the rocks - so interesting ! We sailed along the coast to get to Bari. We went into the Bari  Porto Novo which is a bit away from the city center - we basically have to cross the truck terminal, take a “navette” with all of the truck drivers to get into town). The next day from Bari and after our ride in the “navette”, we rented a car to visit the peculiar city of Matera - a must see if anyone is in the region. Its history dates back to the Palaeolithic era. The terrain is made of calcareous rocks which formes natural caves where initially troglodytes lived. Later on the cave were enlarged and stone structures were added to the city and were occupied by the Romans, Byzantines, Saracens , Aragones and Bourbons before being abandoned for a long time. After the 1980’ Matera was renovated and restaurants, and hotels were built in those “sassi". The scenery is absolutely mind-boggling and totally charming. We visited a lot of the tourist recommended spots (e.g. Materasum Ipogeo, Cathedral, some churches, etc.) - definitively a spot I would recommend to be visited, even by a gray day ! In the evening we had a very nice dinner (except for the music that was too loud) with an “old” - he had not seen him in 20 years - friend of Roberto and his younger wife Antonella in the Ruffiano restaurant in the center of Bari. On Sunday, we worked on the boat - I FINALLY finished to clean the steel on the entire boat and believe it or not there is A LOT of steel on this boat yet it is shining now and one needs sun glasses to look at it :::))) Roberto and Alessia checked the motor diesel and now are preparing the engine for our dinghy “Mini to Knotty Girl”.

We visited the old town of Bari which honestly is Ok but not exceptional except for the Cathedral of San Sabino and the Basilic of San Nicola - a Roman style basilic very well known for its number of pilgrims coming in every day and after seeing it we understand why !

I was happy as I ate the best ice cream of the trip so far - from Sandrino (Il gelato at naturale) - MIAAAAAAM :)

Tomorrow after Alessia’s departure, Roberto and I are off to Monopoli and then to Brinsidi to pick up a couple of friends which we very much look forward to welcoming onboard.