Summer is coming to an end and the first signs of cold weather are visible outside the window. Winter is coming to Latvia, bringing with it the first sub-zero temperatures. Frost covers the ground. It’s the right time to head for warmer climes. Like migratory birds, we are heading for Italy.
Rome is also on our list of destinations, but our main goal is the heel of Italy. We are traveling with a large group of friends, united by our love of dancing and desire to enjoy a little more sun and warm weather.
The flight is on a weekday afternoon, after a leisurely and sunny day. I start the day with work so that the flight itself doesn’t take up the whole day and I can also do something productive.
Overall, we will have to fly a lot. First to Rome and then another domestic flight to Brindisi, because there are no direct flights from Latvia. The whole afternoon will be spent flying and walking around the airport.
We will be met at Rome airport by Valeria, an Italian who has been living in Latvia for quite some time, is starting to understand Latvian, and has been given her own unofficial Latvian name – Ilze from Sabile. She likes the wine from this region. It is worth mentioning that Valeria is the main iniciator of this trip. She will turn 30, and we will celebrate this milestone birthday in Rome.
Next, we will head to the aforementioned Brindisi. Sun, sea, and summer for Latvians.
Time flies at Rome airport, as there is not much waiting between flights, but the airport itself is huge. One route in one direction to the shops, another back, and an hour disappears without notice. We meet Valeria at the airport and are already in the next queue for the flight.
The domestic flight goes by very quickly. Just a few last formalities and we can pick up the car. The last drive of the day takes us to our accommodation, located 100 meters from the sea. Without much discussion or thought, the day comes to an end.
We start the first day with breakfast at the nearest beach café. There is a wide variety of dishes, some of which are tasty, some of which could be better, but that’s always the case when you experiment with what you order.
After breakfast, we head to the nearest town (Gallipoli), where we will spend practically the whole day. We don’t walk around the town itself so much as its historic part on the seashore, where there is a castle with a museum. There are various souvenir shops and views of the sea. Our last activity is a visit to the castle museum itself. On the lower floor, where we can go down, there is a kind of round room. Standing in the middle of it, the room has excellent acoustics, which amplify what is said several times over. The girls sing a little, joined by a random tourist who also wants to sing along. We are about to start selling concert tickets, but the alarm goes off, stopping the singing. Amidst laughter, we leave.
The last plan for the day is to watch the sunset, but clouds change our plans and we head to the shops to buy food for dinner, which we will prepare at home. The car’s trunk is full of purchases.
Before leaving the city, we bought some freshly caught shrimp on the way to the sea – a few kilograms for only 10 euros. The girls got some treasures from the sea, which the shrimp seller gave them as souvenirs. Starfish and a large seashell. I have practically no pictures from Gallipoli because I left my camera at home, but some views can be seen in the video below the blog post.
When we got home, the big cooking began. Cleaning the shrimp seems to be the most time-consuming process. Cooking, eating, and talking. It’s time to go to bed.
We start the new day with a leisurely breakfast on the terrace. The girls have made pancakes. We eat breakfast in the sunshine and plan to go to the nearby beach.
A couple of hours on the beach, which is practically empty at this time of year, but compared to the climate in Latvia, it is a relatively warm summer day.
Lunch at a local café, where the main focus is on seafood, mostly grilled. Not very sophisticated, but the grilled dishes were good.
When the sun sets at six, the days seem very short. In the afternoon, we head to the rocky beach located in the park. Count the views and take a more extreme hike, as this trail is definitely not meant for a peaceful family walk. You can find the place on the map by the name of the tower – Torre Uluzzo. The car park is at least a 15-minute walk from the seashore. On Google Maps, the car park is full of cars, but when we arrived, there were only four cars in total.
Darkness creeps up unnoticed. It’s time to go home, but on the way, we need to stop and buy the missing ingredients for dinner. The terrace of the house is sheltered and warm enough, but you can hear the wind playing with the nearby sea – blowing and blowing. Food, drinks and conversations end the day.
Every day, someone starts getting up earlier. Sanita is bustling about in the kitchen, making pancakes. A sunny breakfast, and our journey takes us to the sea. A different beach, but the same sea.
Our bodies are hot, our stomachs are empty — it’s time to go home for lunch. Pasta day. We eat and drive to Castro Marina. There is no set plan. A walk around town, ice cream, and darkness creeps in unnoticed.
We drive home to eat something and get ready for our first dance party. Everything is about an hour’s drive away: all the towns, sights, and the location of the evening party.
A few hours pass to the sounds of Latin rhythms, and we have to go home well after midnight. Everyone is tired and wants to go to bed early. Sleep will be good, a little less than on other days, but very welcome and eagerly awaited.
The morning brings different wake-up times, as the evening party has affected the desired amount of sleep. The morning brings pancakes and thoughts about the day’s plans. Another day will begin with a visit to the beach. The sea is calm today and the weather is warmer.
After sunbathing, we have lunch with local delicacies, namely seafood. For the first time, I try mussels that I can confidently call delicious. We have various other snacks and are thoroughly full, so we can go to the town of Lecce.
In the city, we are assisted by a local worker who introduces himself as a very helpful traffic organizer, but in reality, all he wants is money for his supposed assistance. Not this time. Such people tend to damage cars if they are not paid, but since our cars are fully insured, we don’t worry about such trifles.
We don’t get to take a long walk around the city because it’s getting dark, but we manage to see some of the most popular sights. Another dance party is planned for the evening. Two more friends from Latvia join us in Lech, whose journey here has been full of adventures. Starting with the fact that at the last minute, they both realize that not all their documents are in order, because their flight is via England. Then the flight is rerouted through Poland, where they can’t find a taxi, so they have to stay overnight in a hotel that is not near the airport. It’s a long night and day before they arrive in Italy. The train and Lecce are here.
Now there are 10 of us, and we are all going to a dance party. Time flies, and during the night the clocks are turned back to autumn time – an extra hour of sleep will come in handy. Everyone has danced the night away and is ready for new adventures the next day, but today it’s time to sleep.
We wanted to start Sunday with a boat trip, but the weather at sea changed our plans a little. The day begins with a trip to Otranto and sights near the city.
We start with a tour of a cave that was built as a food storage place. The owner of the place treats us to coffee, local wine, and some snacks. The treat is not free, as this place is a tourist attraction with a café, which is empty because it is not the high season.
The next site, near the city, is a closed quarry on the seashore. A pit with reddish-orange sand and greenish-blue water. A magnificent view. The pit is cordoned off with a rope, which serves as a warning not to go any further, as it may be dangerous. At first, it might seem that you need to take a bit of a risk to see the most beautiful part, but if you patiently walk around the entire area, the best views will be accessible without taking any unnecessary risks.
After exploring nature, we can head to the city itself. The city is not large, like all the other cities in this region we have visited so far, and the most interesting sights are in the historic center.
Before starting our walk, we eat ice cream and local sweets. Then we scatter like ants among the small streets. It is a place to spend a leisurely afternoon. A few hours fly by. At sunset, we can head home. Sunset is earlier today because the clocks were set back an hour last night. We return home. I would even say very early — there is no need to rush — a leisurely evening and dinner at home.
We can start the new week with the planned boat trip. This is our earliest morning, as everyone gets up very early. A peaceful breakfast, of course with Sanita’s pancakes, which we had almost every morning. Sanita could open her own pancake restaurant.
Our house is in a very good location in terms of time management, because the furthest point we traveled to was just over an hour’s drive away. Today, too, it takes less than an hour to reach the southernmost point of Italy – Santa Maria di Leuca (not counting the islands, and it is not the southernmost point geographically). People used to think that this was where the land ended, because beyond it there was only sea. This is where the Adriatic and Ionian Seas meet.
The boat trip starts around ten o’clock and lasts about three hours. Before we set sail, the captain tells us a little about the history of the coastal town, the port, and the sea. One sea is only 10-20 meters deep, but the other sea, like a mountain, can reach up to 50-70 meters right there on the seashore. Further from the shore, the depth can reach thousands of meters.
The trip is like an excursion along the coastal caves. Each cave has its own name. We start with the Adriatic Sea, because the deep waters are calmer. A leisurely trip with historical facts. We decide to stay longer in this sea and only enter the Ionian Sea for a short while, because that was the main reason why the previous day’s plans were changed, namely, the waves are much bigger in the second sea.
Before concluding our trip on the Adriatic Sea, we go fishing with the captain and catch two tuna. We take turns steering the boat. At the end of the route, there is another cave with a swimming spot. Almost all of us go swimming to enter the cave, where there is a small pond illuminated by light coming from under the water.
After swimming, our captain cooks the tuna we caught a moment ago. Fried tuna meat and wine. After a while, we are already on our way back to the port. One last turn towards the Ionian Sea, where we are rocked a little by the waves. From the sea, we can see the aforementioned furthest point of land.
We return to the port and go in search of ice cream and snacks. We don’t have to look far. With our energy reserves recharged, we head along the coast to see some tourist attractions, including the furthest point of land, which is like a hill with a cave at the bottom.
The last thing to check out is the lighthouse we saw from the boat trip. It’s the perfect spot for sunset. As the sun gets closer to the horizon, it disappears in a few minutes. Time to head home.
We end the evening at a local restaurant, where our menu consists of seafood. Full and tired. Home and bed.
Last day in the region. This afternoon we fly to Rome. No plans for the morning. Some go to the beach to sunbathe, some just go for a walk, others take their time packing their belongings for the flight. Breakfast is very hearty, as we eat everything we have left. We drive to Brindisi to return the rental cars.
It’s a small airport. The plane flying to Rome is the only one at the airport. An hour’s flight and we’re in Rome. We took off at sunset, but it’s already dark in Rome. Our first plan in Rome is to eat. Most likely pizza, which we didn’t eat while in the Salento region.
After landing, our minds change and pizza is nowhere to be found on the menu. Various types of pasta, appetizers, and wine. The final course is cake.
Only the last task of the evening remains. We have to get to the apartment where we will stay for two nights. The metro route is closed, but there is a bus instead. For a moment, two Italians in our group seem to be lost, because it is not clear which direction we should go or walk. Then we ask some security guards or police officers, I don’t know what to call them, and they explain about the changes and the bus.
We ride for a while until we reach the stop near the apartment. A few hundred meters on foot and the doors of our apartment open.
It’s almost midnight—Valeria’s birthday. Valeria’s parents have prepared snacks for us in the apartment. A wonderful welcome. Valeria waits with us until midnight and then goes to spend the night at her parents house.
Our eyelids fall like a curtain to bring a new day in Rome. In the evening, we will celebrate Valeria’s birthday.
There is one more person in Rome. Large groups are less flexible when it comes to acting quickly and decisively, but we spend the day together. We go to the park (Villa Torlonia), where Benito Mussolini’s residence is located, that is, where he lived for some time. There are several buildings in the park, which can be visited individually or with a combined ticket. We cannot enter one of the buildings because it turns out to be under a different management and our ticket is not valid there.
Before entering the park, we couldn’t resist buying ice cream and other sweets. I looked at the ice cream selection and forgot about the mango flavor, choosing the raspberry flavor instead. Right at the exit, I managed to smear my shorts, which I rinsed off right there, but the bright pink color of the ice cream left a slight stain on my shorts.
After visiting the park and enjoying the art, we head to the nearest pizzeria to eat. There is still plenty of time before the evening party, so we can check out an art object not far from the apartment where we are staying. It is an impressive square coliseum, which looks like a huge cube in nature. Complemented by huge statues, it looks even more impressive. It is also located on a hill, which only adds to its height and impressiveness. However, you cannot go inside because it is a private building that can be rented for events.
A few more turns before nightfall. On the way, the only obelisk built by the Romans themselves, as all the others were brought back as trophies. Wherever you look, there is an object of art. It is impossible to see and visit everything.
We had a good walk today. We are ready for the evening party. Valeria’s mom, dad, and friend are taking us to the venue. It’s a big party. The venue is right in the center, not far from the Colosseum — the real one this time. We live about 10 kilometers away, but the trip takes about 45 minutes. I am in Valeria’s dad’s car. You can tell that he is a local because road signs are not the main thing. If you are not confident on the streets of Rome, you can expect to wait in long queues.
I could write a separate blog post about driving culture. In the Salento region, or the first part of our trip, we drove rental cars and tried to drive like the locals. Driving 20 km/h over the speed limit was the norm. During daylight hours, locals drove even 30 km/h over the speed limit. In small villages, it was still calm, but in Rome, pedestrians are not respected — you have to be bold and walk, as rarely will anyone voluntarily let you pass.
The event takes place on the rooftop terrace. We are a group of Latvians and even more Italians. Everyone arrives slowly and unhurriedly, or rather, delayed by traffic, because the traffic here is chaotic.
The evening’s music is provided by a DJ who plays a playlist compiled by Valeria. The list also includes many Latvian songs. Every part of the audience is satisfied with songs that they can not only dance to, but also sing along with.
Various dishes and drinks are served during the evening, and we can also order our drinks at the bar.
Several hours of eating, dancing, and talking – time flies by unnoticed. We also manage to dance salsa, bachata, and kizomba. After the event, we are taken home, where the most resilient ones continue to party, but soon everyone goes to bed.
We start our last day in Rome at different paces. Some go to the city center to shop, others to see cultural sites. I am in the group that goes to see the old stones, namely the Baths of Caracalla. A Roman bathing place. Huge ruins, but they give an idea of what it looked like when everything was still working. Now they are just old stones, but originally it was an impressive building where people came to bathe.
The flight to Riga is in the evening. There isn’t much time for other activities. We don’t have to cook, we have leftovers from yesterday’s party. There was a lot of food. We didn’t get to taste everything, so today’s lunch will make up for that.
The afternoon is unhurried, with thoughts of what everyone will do in the evening, tomorrow, or beyond. For some, tomorrow is a workday, while others have taken the day off, because even vacations need a break.
The last few meters to the airport. The plane and a few hours flight to Riga. My 10-day summer vacation is now over, and it’s time to find some warmer clothes, because it’s autumn in Latvia — rain and low temperatures.