See Me Now

Here's my post written while en route home: ---------------------------------------------------------- After 24 hours in Lecce post cycling, we caught a flight from the Brindisi airport back to Rome and holed up in a Hilton Hotel just off the grounds of the airport. Upon return to the airport on Tuesday morning, Wendy and I said goodbye and headed to our separate terminals. In short order, I discovered that British Airways cancelled my two flights (Rome to London, London to Seattle) although they cheerily informed me that my Seattle to home flight was still ok (gee thanks). After standing in a long line to get re-routed (two agents to serve an entire flight's worth of people), I was relieved that my new itinerary was not so bad:   Rome - Frankfurt - San Francisco - home. However, it has turned into a 24 hour trip so I'll be pretty wasted when I finally get back. I'm writing this while at the SF airport, drinking a beer and watching the Giants, so things could b...

I know I've already raved about the food but I can't help but do it again. This has been the best food experience I've ever had. I can't imagine how an Italian can come to the U.S. and not be deeply disappointed in the food. Our meals typically include antipasto featuring fish, grains, vegetables (yes, I'm eating vegetables!), legumes and cheese. Everything is freshly prepared and accented with herbs and olive oil. We can then choose from first and second courses that involve pasta (of course), squid, octopus, eggplant, or many types of fish. Mozzarella and ricotta are served at every meal (including breakfast) and they are so much melt-in-your-mouth better than what we get in the U.S.  Only occasionally have I seen chicken or beef on the menu, although I'm told that tonight's dinner may involve meat. Even taking just a spoonful of each offering results in a full plate so despite our (minor) efforts at restraint, we are leaving the table each time a litt...

They aren't kidding when they call it "Backroads."  Our routes have taken us through groves of olives and almonds, fields where they are growing chard, artichokes, and other leafy greens, small towns and gravel roads. On the good side, we've seen a lot of how 'the real people live,' often in charming old homes set on agricultural acreage. On the bad side, the routes are very complicated. We are constantly turning or veering at Y's or negotiating traffic circles -- it's rare that we get to ride on the same street for even 3-5km.  We are given pages and pages of instructions each morning so in addition to watching for potholes and traffic and each other, we are trying to read our route instructions. On top of that, most of the roads are unnamed and/or unmarked so the instructions will say something like "Easy turn to miss - turn right at the unmarked 3 way intersection, green house on your right.  If you reach a stop sign ...

Ok, I know I am way behind on blog posts and it's not because of the wine intake, although the wine intake has been substantial. It's because we are having so much fun.  Blog posting has fallen in priority behind bike riding, incredible meals, wine tasting, and food demos. We met up with our cycling group at the Bari Centrale train station on Tuesday am. They  drove us by van to our starting point where we first had lunch (a scrumptious buffet of healthy selections: grain salads, seafood salads, caprese, eggplant and more) at a gorgeous beach side restaurant. We also received a run down of logistics and an overview of the bikes. After lunch, it was finally time to suit up and go on our first ride. This first one was rather short --- just 17 miles to get ourselves oriented and, I'm sure, for the ride leaders to check us all out.  We ended up at Corta Altavilla in Conversano where we checked into charmingly restored rooms in a hotel right across from a beautiful church,...