Monopoli

Right beside our current lodgings is the most amazing church - Saint Leonardo. I went in for a nosey (you know me, love a good church) and the guy who had been hovering on the steps was so excited to show me around! There was an American guy there looking too, and the excitable one (turned out he was a priest) took the two of us all over in the bowels of the church. We really had not much idea what we were looking at but we kept nodding and smiling and the US guy kept saying 'don't leave me' as we went into more back rooms. The small cupboard that spun out into the church from a back room was definitely not somewhere you would baptise a child, but he kept saying 'bebe' and patting his head - so that one was lost on us. We asked how many churches there are in Monopoli old town, and we think he said 99 - there definitely seems to be a church every time you turn around, but I am going to call him on that number. We saw a map that shows there are 7, and we have nicely been into 4, at which time we decided that that was the end of that game. After a while the meld into a mass of altars.

Some are more simple than others - some are so grand that you need to photograph yourself in them! We did see one yesterday that apart from the standard signs of 'no alcohol', 'no icecreams', 'no togs' etc, was clear that there were to be no photographs when mass was on. That's makes perfect sense to me.

Wasn't sure about the one with ex staff members in coffins standing upright - that was the Church of Purgatory. The Jackson Russell of churches. (Sorry, was just telling Sue about life working at Jackson Russell).

This is a roundabout way of saying that we are in Monopoli - the main takeaway is that it is gorgeous, absolutely worth a visit. Pristine.  Elegant. Reminds me in many ways of the little streets of Greece. Amazing cafes, right on the sea - although there was a big storm a few weeks ago and there is a mass of seaweed that absolutely stinks. Finding a place to swim is a challenge and, I guess, context is everything. Lying on a slab of concrete on a thin towel is not like the sand at Rings Beach, but we travel to experience something different, not to see the same things as at home, n'est pas? We have swum. 

We have sipped cocktails in the balmy evenings, eaten good food, walked and walked and gone in circles in the mass of little alleyways in the old town.

Today we are packing up, leaving to catch the train to Lecce.  At Lecce we will pick up a rental car, and gingerly pick our way down to Tricasse. There's a bit to fill in of our day trip yesterday, but I'll get there.