Monday 24 June - Matera to Bari

Leaving at 11am made for a relaxing morning, and I know some had been up early to have a look at the shops and for another wander around the streets, but we stayed put in our room.      As part of the ‘City of Culture’ there is a brand new railways station being constructed, supposed to be well and truly finished but its only just functioning.   It supports a new direct Matera to Bari line, again part of the culture and tourism drive now that Matera is such a drawcard, and the train itself is very new.   The old station is newly painted, as are most of the stations we saw along the way – a deep reddy brown colour with cream facings and grey shutters, all very smart. 

Our 100-minute journey had several random stops in the middle of nowhere but the greatest excitement was, stopped at a small station, the wooden pedestrian platform that crossed the tracks caught FIRE!   What a pantomime.     Our train driver got out and ran along the main platform, another man stood around wringing his hands, and all the while the flames were licking out of the gaps in the platform, there was smoke, the wood started charring, flames appeared in another corner.    Great excitement for the passengers (and we were right beside this platform so had a good view) was when the man went and got a fire extinguisher (at last!), finally got it turned on and …………it did pretty much nothing.    So then man number two threw down a hose from the upper floor of the station building, number one used the fairly low-pressure water to little effect despite stuffing the end of the house down into the platform cracks.   Finally Mr two came outside and saved the day, his watering seemed to work properly and our train departed, leaving us all a bit puzzled as to why we didn’t just drive on anyway and leave the station staff to deal with it.     So with all the stops we were over half an hour late getting to Bari.

We decided to get some washing done as our 4^th floor window was open when we got in and there was a very warm breeze so it was worth taking advantage – we’ve tried to keep up the washing as we’ve gone along and it definitely makes me appreciate my washing machine at home.    We have a stretchy line and that can be strung up very creatively too.    McDonalds was right next to the hotel so we chose that and gave the group suggestion of pasta, pizza or paninis a miss, and after that Pete went for a walk round the neighbourhood and I had a nice nana nap.     

Pete had been reading about the Kiwi Concert Party when he was looking up about the Polish connection to Monte Cassino and noticed that they had been based in Bari for maybe 18 months when they were going up and down to various front lines entertaining the troops.  There was also the New Zealand Forces club at Bari and Pete decided to have a look at where that was located, just a few blocks away.  Bari had a main hospital and supply base as well.    So he was pleased to have a purpose for his walk.

We all met at 5.30 and walked for about 25 minutes to the old town close to the sea, it was hot but there was a good breeze and the sun wasn’t right overhead so it was quite pleasant.   The old town was a surprise because I’d thought Bari was mainly an industrial and transport hub but it has quite a history.  It had been ruled by Frederic 2, and was a good harbour and a start and finish point for crusades.   The Turks took it over, only to be defeated by the Venetians, so it has quite a history.   There were churches every time you turned a corner and we went into two, one had a sculpted marble pole which looked to be the life of Christ because up the top was definitely the last supper, it was beautiful, I wish my photography skills were better.     That was the last of the ABC part of our tour (another b..church, another b..cathedral) though most of us haven't minded it at all because the churches are generally all beautiful and many have an interesting history.

I actually bought a few souvenirs on this walk, just little things, the stallholders were not pushy and the goods were a good price.   We ended up on a street corner having drinks before our final tour dinner at a fish restaurant, then sat with drinks with a couple of the group in the hotel bar before heading to bed.   

So our first experience of an Intrepid tour was a very positive one – Pete’s brother has done more than ten and swears by them, but his are more ‘intrepid’ than the 2/5 difficulty level in Puglia!   We both enjoyed the guided walking tours in Ravello, Trani and Matera, and I think my favourite was the family museum and dancing afterwards.  Pete agrees, he says he was fascinated that the father of the family was prepared to do all that excavation at his own expense and what a great outcome.     Well done Jacopo, our guide, who smoothed everything out every step of the way.  Puglia is a great place to visit but perhaps messy to get from A to B, so the tour made that easy for us.  

Tuesday 25 June - Bari to Venice

The railway station was literally just across the road from our hotel so after an early breakfast we were out the door by 8am for our 8.30 train trip to Venice.   What a great idea that was, almost eight hours disappeared easily: Pete dozed on and off, I came and went to the blog, we watched a couple of episodes of a TV series about the Hatton Garden robbery (Tim Spall starring), and looked out at the varying scenery.  Far better than eight hours on a plane, that’s for sure.  The train was comfortable, we had plenty of room, would recommend this trip to anyone.

Our first sight of the sea was just south of Termoli, and for probably three hours after that we followed the coast past nice-looking houses, a few apartment blocks, a couple of resorts with pool and tennis courts (right beside the sea), and closer to towns there were a lot of ‘pay to sunbathe’ areas with deck chairs and umbrellas all set out in rows waiting for customers.    People were swimming everywhere, protected all along the coast with breakwaters which must have been a huge effort to build with their enormous rocks.      One little park had a dozen or more campervans lined up - maybe Kevin and Heather could bring theirs over from Brisbane for a bit of a change from the Aussie scenery?    Further north I liked the look of about 500m with a belt of trees with seats and plenty of shelter, looking out over the beach and its umbrellas etc, a pretty place to visit.     A couple of times we had a helicopter keeping pace with us as it flew up the coast, maybe 100m away.   

There were yachts, some lifeguards, a big camping ground, small water-play parks, we saw small river mouths (looked like NZ), and all along the coast the sand was a bit like fine pebbles or ground up shell in some parts but generally it looked ‘normal’.     We could also see what seemed to be oil or gas platforms out to sea.  On the inland side of the tracks things it got quite hilly at times with small old villages in the distance, vegetation changed, and it all made for an interesting trip as far as Ancona which is a bit over half way.   Turned inland at 1.30pm and the countryside changed from the wide open spaces of the south to very pretty rolling hills, quite green, lots of vegetables being grown, lots of trees, grapes, it was quite a difference.

We got to Venice at 4.30, had step by step instructions (including photos) of how to get to Hotel da Bruno when we got off the vaporetto at the Rialto Bridge – so easy!    It’s probably less than ten minutes from the Rialto, and not much more to St Mark’s square.     We settled in, Pete had a bit of banking and other stuff to sort out, and we didn’t leave the room until about 8.30 when we wandered to St Mark’s.  It was still quite busy and there was a musical group outside one of the restaurants so we stopped for a while and listened.   It was lovely walking back, we stopped and looked, I took some photos but mostly just looked around.  Venice is so full of history and if you are able to pick your time of year it is a great place to visit.     We had pasta after 10pm at a little place in a lane, sitting outside watching the world go by.  A perfect ending to the day, and the start of three more perfect days.

And I've uploaded three photos sent by one of our fellow travellers, she loved it when Pete and I were walking hand-in-hand.  And when I was lagging behind looking for photos - but she was behind me though!    I could have been a tour leader with my distinctive kiwi umbrella but we all decided I'm not tall enough, especially when compared with Jacopo, he was head-above most of us, plus a mop of hair, so we could always see him.