Norm & Felicity’s Travel Diary

 Hi all, Yesterday, we said farewell to Lecce in Italy and made our way to Bari by train, then by Ryan Air to Valletta. The lovely Mathew picked us up as planned at the airport and weaved his way through the narrow streets of Valletta to our abode for the next 8 nights - the U Collection panorama suite. As usual Normie has booked us into the heart of the city, in a pedestrian only section. Our street is pretty cool, sitting between the Cathedral of St John and the Masters Palace. But the apartment is even better - siting three stories above the very active streets below. We had a quick unpack, found the wifi and headed out for dinner at the Malta dinner time of 8pm. The view from our abode is below: The dinner was magnificent - Normie couldn’t resist the local specialty, Rabbit casserole - he was in heaven. After a quick local supply stop for essentials (milk, bread and wine) we hit the sack after a long but enjoyable travel day. Today we walked only a few kilometres, as Valletta i...

 Hi all, we had a quiet Sunday in Lecce before taking on a road trip yesterday around the Salento peninsula. This area was originally settled by the Greeks in 600 BC and still has a huge Greek influence, including a local Greco/italian dialect. The architecture is a real mix of Romanesque and Baroque, with a little Moorish thrown in! At Galatina we visited the Franciscan church, the second established in Italy in 1391, including many frescoes that are in great condition. Still stunning after 600 years. Then it was on the road again to Otrano, with its Spanish Castle of Aragon, and surprisingly a Romanesque church with a heavy Moorish influence on the ceiling. This Church of the Martyrs is dedicated to the 800 souls who were killed by the invading Turks (who had a short occupation of the town). Roman mosaics on the floor, Moorish gold on the roof! We went further south to the extreme southern tip of mainland Italy, on the heel of the boot, to the lovely seaport of Santa Maria Di Leu...

 Hi all, We have had a great few days exploring wonderful Lecce, from city gate to city gate using the great local guide book. Yesterday we started at the first of the gates. Then we meandered through the second “route” in our guide book of Lecce, trying not to see all of the 40 or so churches in the city all at once. They really are magnificent, some more Baroque than others, but one has to wonder why Lecce needs a major church, basilica or cathedral every 200 metres or so?  We did find some other buildings of interest though, like this 17th century private mansion! Plus another piece of Roman antiquity, the 1st century Theatre, which was only rediscovered last century under 5 metres of fill. Today we tried for the second day running to go to the nearby town of Gallipoli ( not the Turkish one). However, after waiting for the local bus, Goggle Maps finally let us down - we discovered through other tourists waiting at the same spot, that the service doesn’t kick off until mid J...

 Hi all, Yesterday we took a short train trip south from Brindisi to our abode for the next week,- Lecce in the region of Salento, Italy (the heal). Of course it was no accident that we found ourselves in a city full of history going back thousands of years to the Greek and Roman times. This Roman amphitheatre just happened to be on the way to our apartment! We settled in pretty quickly to our great 17th century apartment (modernised of course) after a great introduction by host Francesca. We have already tried one of her recommended restaurants, and will be going down the list based on the excellent fare at Vico Del Gusto.  This morning we took a lead from the city guide to Baroque Lecce, and walked Route 1 (of four recommended routes) thought 14 historic sites that included the Cathedral (Doumo) and numerous other churches and historic sites. The “ no more than 2 churches a day” rule set by Holly was definitely broken. Of course we couldn’t resist a closer look at the 1st Ce...