Puglia, Part 2.

The beautiful stone house built by Dave and Sue in Puglia

From Gallipoli we drove to Salve, about an hour away. This is where Dave and Sue make their home.

Dave grew up on the East Coast of the U.S. and Sue is from North Carolina. When they met, much like us, they were well along in their respective careers and ready for an adventure. They decided to move to Europe, wanting to live in the South, in the sun. At a café in Venice they met an English couple and struck up a conversation. These strangers counseled them to search for a home near Lecce, advice they took. When they first saw the ruined sentry tower in Salve they fell in love with it immediately. It was nothing but a shell, at that time, with no top floor and not much of a roof. It had been built in the fourteen hundreds as a watch tower against marauding raiders who were all too common in those times. There are still several others in the area which, in conjunction with their own, were used as relay stations to warn against impending attack.

They took on the project of creating a house around this dramatic ruin and have made a really beautiful home. The tower became their dining room and their bedroom is built on a second floor which was added. They expanded the house from the tower out on one level creating a big and bright living room/study and beyond that a large kitchen and utility/bathroom. The back kitchen door leads on to a terrace where they eat many of their meals and beyond that is another small house with a beautiful little bedroom and bathroom, where we slept.

From Gallipoli to Salve and two side trips

The blue line shows our trajectory from Gallipoli to Salve and two side-trips we took while we were staying with our friends.

Our guest quarters

The room where we stayed was very charming. As in much of the house, the ceilings were vaulted and the walls were white-washed.

Inside the tower

The tower itself is a very cozy room in the winter, we are told, when the fire is blazing and all the stone absorbs the heat.

Breakfast

The story of our adventures in southern Italy must necessarily be a story about meals, as food was a big theme of our visit to the heel of the boot. While staying with Dave and Sue, we were treated to real Southern (Southern U.S. that is) grits. A beautiful fried egg served on top. What a treat! Grits are not an Italian thing at all, and their continuous supply is imported from the U.S. where they, unlike us, go fairly regularly.

Lunch

I took a photo of one of the beautiful lunches that Sue put down for us: fresh vegetables, Italian cheeses, crusty bread, not to mention spritzes made with Prosecco and Aperol. The table was so beautiful, I thought it worthy of a magazine spread. It was also wonderfully satisfying.

The dining terrace

One interesting aspect of life at Dave and Sue's is their cat population. They have ten, each with a name and a distinctive personality. While we were there we did know some of the critters by name, but now those monikers have escaped our minds. They are quite a crazy lot, especially near meal time. Confusingly, only two of them have indoor rights, the others are meant to be outside, but of course most of them are constantly at the doors waiting for their chance to dash in when someone enters or exits. It's a bit of a game to defeat them, or catch them if you don't. There is one cat who whines a lot, one who bites, one who won't let you get near him, one who wants to sit on your feet and a couple who jump onto your lap invited or not.

One of the grouchy cats

On Sunday we had a particularly nice day, driving down to the southernmost tip of the heel to Santa Maria di Leuca where Dave and Sue keep their boat. We were to take a cruise on their dinghy. It's not a fancy sailing vessel, in fact it's inflatable, but exactly perfect for cruising up and down the coast, which in the season they do frequently.

Rick carrying the extra gas to prevent us from being marooned at sea

From Santa Maria harbor, the boat can make a left turn and motor up the Adriatic side of the coast or turn right and travel into the Ionian Sea. We did both. They have completely different characters.

Dave arrives in the boat to pick us up

The Adriatic has dark blue waters which lap at the bottoms of the sheer cliff faces, eroding away the stone from the bottom up. All along the coastline are grottos which you can drive your boat right into.

One of the many grottos that line the cliff face

Dave took us into one of them with a shaft of sunlight from the "roof" of the cliff bathing the interior. It was like a kind of fairy tale location.

Entering the grotto which was almost like a church

The Mediterranean waters, of which the Adriatic and Ionian are a part, are relatively tame, without strong tides or huge waves. Emily calls the Med "a big bath tub," but for boating, and swimming for that matter, the calm, warm waters make for a pleasant, relaxed experience.

Inside the grotto

On the Ionian side the water is turquoise and apparently there are a lot more sandy beaches, although we didn't see them. We stopped near a famous grotto here too called Grotta delle Tre Porte.

Sue is a great swimmer and took a long dip on both sides. Rick and Dave joined her here while I stayed on board.

One of the famous grottos on the Ionian Sea side

Now it's time to turn our attention back towards meals. Sunday Pranzo, the traditional Italian midday meal, is a popular pastime in Puglia. Many people go out for a meal. Sue had made us a reservation at one of their favorite places on the coast north of Santa Maria in a town called Trecase Porto. The restaurant was colorful and simple, serving the freshest fish a person can get, straight out of the ocean.

Taverna del Porto in Trecase Porto

The choices were temptingly arranged. Dave ordered a starter for us of sashimi of orata (dorade in French, sea bream in English). My experience with sashimi is limited to what one might receive in a Japanese restaurant. This turned out to be one of the most delicious tastes I could imagine. The fish is white, mild, firm and full of the flavor of the sea. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to take a photo of it as it arrived to our table, since it was devoured in a heartbeat.

Fresh fish on offer

The fish was raw, filleted down the middle with the head and tail left on, but all the meat from one side skinned and cut into bite size pieces. After you finish that part of the fish, the server takes away your plate, brings it back into the kitchen where is is breaded and deep fried with battered zuchinni strips added on top. I had never seen anything quite like that. I was one of those meals I will always remember.

Deep fried orata with zucchini fingers

Meanwhile, while waiting for the second Orata serving, the main course, which we each ordered was delivered. I got salt cod which is called bacalhau in Portugal, where I am quite familiar with it. In every grocery store there you find stacks of salt cod, which smells terrible. I have never been interested in trying it before, but for some reason this time it attracted me. Probably because it was so beautifully presented. Cod swims in cold waters, not in the Mediterranean, so it is not a fresh local fish, but I think it is so popular in southern countries because it is not expensive. The cod is, or at least was, very abundant and huge amounts are caught, salted right on board the ships and then brought to market. The salt perfectly preserves the fish which is then rehydrated in water to serve. I quite enjoyed it.

Salt cod

Dave and Sue, like everyone else around them, have lost all their ancient olive trees to an invasive blight. Their orchards are filled with dead trunks which they haven't had the heart or energy to completely cut down yet. They have, however, begun to replace the dead ones with new resistant varieties. They have planted a great many olive and pomegranate trees in the last few years. Olive trees take a very long time to grow and live hundreds of years, continuing to produce fruit. This year their harvest is less than in years past, but not insignificant. They harvest the olives and bring them to a local cooperative where they are pressed into oil. We accompanied Dave when he went to pick up his large container of virgin olive oil. Our friend Iza in Portugal also makes her own oil.

Dave weighing his olive oil

Three days went by quickly. We had many pleasant conversations with our charming friends, played some cards, and were treated very well and fed royally. But now it was time to leave. Even if we were sorry to go, we were about to travel along the coast north all the way to the spur of the boot, a very beautiful area, which I will tell your about next time.

Goodbye. We hope to see you again