John & Karen's Italian Adventure

The Salento

2009-07-08T15:23:00.004-05:00

Puglia has three sub-regions: the Gargano in the north, the Murgia (with the Itria Valley) in the middle, and the Salento in the south. We did not ride in the Gargano but we cycled through the Itria Valley and the Salento. I'll talk about the Itria Valley in another post but this one is about the Salento.

The word is a corruption of dialectical terms for Sun, Sea, and Wind. And that's what you have in abundance. The land is rougher and there are fewer olive trees. Residents take pride in a distinctive culture with unique foods, music, dance and, of course, scenery.

Here is a video of our ride along the Salento coast. We are leaving Porto Badisco and on our way to Capo d'Otranto, the easternmost point of the Italian peninsula. Tell me this isn't gorgeous or what. Sorry about the jerky camera movements but we were riding up hill at the time.

Arkansas in Rome

2009-06-23T12:41:00.005-05:00

So here we walking through a high end shopping district in Rome and we come across this tie shop door.They were very nice ties, BTW.

And this was our hotel's metro stop.

Father's Day

2009-06-20T17:01:00.007-05:00

This year Father's Day is a little different. As long as my father was alive, I celebrated it two dimensionally: as a father to my boys and as my father's son. My Dad died on December 9 so I mark this father's day as a father only.

There is a sense of loss, of being incomplete. My Dad was my hero because of his loyalty and devotion to his family. He went to Europe in WWII and, after he returned home, he hardly ever left our town, even to go to New Jersey! But his devotion to all of us and my mother, his unconditional love and concern have shaped me beyond description. We didn't talk much but we didn't have to: I knew that I occupied a large part of his heart. And, this weekend, I realize how much of my heart he occupied.

Now, as a father only this weekend, I reflect on my boys: their own individuality, their personal courage, their intelligence, their decency, their generosity and their devotion to each other and the people they love. And I am awed by them! I can never replace my Dad but I hope, in some small way, that I can be to them what he was to me.

This picture brings things almost full circle. It was taken in front of the Cathedral in Monopoli, the town where my grandfather was born. We all have traces of our fathers and their fathers and their fathers and ...

Karen in her Element

2009-06-18T19:30:00.003-05:00

My beautiful wife is a pretty interesting person. As you know, she is an incredible athlete. But a lot of people don't know that swimming was her original sport. She only took up running and then cycling because she could not get to a pool regularly.

The truth is that if she had her choice, she would spend her time in water. Every time we have taken our cycling vacations, she makes sure that she gets into the water as often as possible.

These are pictures of our stop in Monopoli. As she approaches she befriends a fisherman who tells her to avoid certain spots. When she walked to the water, she said that she wanted to get her feet wet but, as the picture below shows, the call of the deep was too much for her and she went in, bike helmet and all.

Karen embraced this as she does all of life - completely open to the experience and its possibilities. That's why I love her so much!

Nikolai's Surgery

2009-06-09T10:19:00.006-05:00

This is not a travel post, strictly speaking. Last night, Nikolai had an emergency appendectomy. He had pain all day Monday and, after waiting in the emergency room for 4 hours, he was diagnosed and had surgery by midnight. He is resting now and will probably be home this afternoon.

What makes this a travel post is this: he immersed himself in the entire trip including trying to eat Friselle, a VERY hard barley bread that must be soaked in water, doused with oil and laden with tomatoes. He rode with Karen and me to Ostuni, even getting to climb the final hill twice when I missed the turn going up and Karen missed the turn going back down.

One of the funniest moments came when he convinced Karen to lay down on top of a dolmen so he could photograph her being "sacrificed." Anyway, speedy recovery, Nikolai.

The Beauty of Rome

2009-06-08T16:30:00.004-05:00

Most people go to Rome to see the Vatican, or the Forum, or the Trevi Fountain, etc. And I saw those things and they were gorgeous.

But this pizza was one of the most beautiful things I saw in Rome. It is a "white" pizza (no tomato sauce) with just cheese and Zucchini blossoms on a paper thin crust. Era squisito! (It was exquisite!)

(This will make up for the octopus picture.)

The First Dinner Part 2

2009-06-08T12:34:00.002-05:00

Continuing, slowly, as I will catch up on our travels while getting back to the swing of things at home is the primi and secundi of our first dinner in Italy.

Ravioli with lemon, Cuttlefish, and Clams. Very tasty. You will see alot of the seafood since we were so close to the sea and it was all delicious.

Safron flavored pasta with a lobster sauce was a rich and mouth filling dish, but did not linger.

I don't have a good picture of the monkfish, but the swordfish pictured here was a delight. Not too tough, just enough bite in the meat to really give you a full flavor.

And Papa DiPippa standing contentedly as we left.

Nonna's Kitchen

2009-06-06T07:24:00.005-05:00

On the morning of our last riding day, we stopped at the grandmother's house of one of VBT's guides for a pasta making lesson. "Nonna" is 82 years old and not shy.

She used hard durum wheat. She was adamant that it was not semolina. In fact, semolina (as we know it in America, is an earlier step in the process. In Italy, the coarse stuff we call semolina is ground to finer specifications. This is important because in Puglia they do not use eggs in their pasta - only flour, water, and salt. The hard durum wheat makes a tougher dough to work with.

In any event, Nonna whipped up a batch of pasta dough on a large wooden board. She took out a long wooden rolling pin called a Matterello. remember that my parents had the same set up. The board would come out and, although the memory fades, we would make what I now know as Cavatelli.

Before rolling the dough, she imprinted the sign of the cross on the ball of dough, kissed her hand and raised it to the sky. She told us that she gives thanks to God because everything she has comes from Him. Nonna rolled the dough with exquisite skill pausing to ask us we wanted to try. Then she made Orrechiette (the Pugliese speciality), cavatelli, fusilli, sagne (a twisted noodle) and ravioli in rapid succession. Several of us tried our hands at pasta making with varying levels of succes. Here is a picture of Micah rolling fusilli.

When we left, we told her that we were traveling with our four sons which prompted a wave of excited talk lasting about 30 seconds that our guide could only translate by saying, "She wishes you many good things and blessings." A picture of us with Nonna is at the top right of the blog.

Matera

2009-06-05T07:17:00.006-05:00

Karen and I went two days earlier than everyone else to stay in Matera. I wrote about it in one of the pre-trip posts. It's a fascinating place where every twist and turn in the narrow streets holds something of interest, even if it's wildflowers growing stubbornly from the side of an abandoned building.

Unlike Rome or even the seaside towns of Puglia, Matera retains a ruggedness that has not been entirely wiped away by the gentrification and tourism spurred by EU development grants or its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site. You find 1,000 year old churches carved in rock being run by indifferent private owners next to a cafe with modern lighting and dance music alongside abandoned sassi sitting on top of occupied sassi with laundry hanging out the window.

Food: Octopus in Monopoli

2009-06-04T05:35:00.003-05:00

The food, especially fish and seafood, was incredible. At lunch in Monopoli, I had freshly caught grilled Octopus. It was not on the menu but when I asked Vito, the owner of the restaurant for Polpo, he smiled and introduced me to my lunch. We sat right next to a wood fired grill that Vito used for the grilled items. He served the octopus with a dab of Olive Oil, which the Pugliese put o everything, and some lemon.

A video of a typical ride

2009-06-03T21:02:00.000-05:00

This is what it was like to ride with everyone at the beginning of the day. On this stretch there were fewer olive trees than usual and they were smaller and younger. There are over 60 million olive trees in Puglia. That's almost one for every Italian citizen.

As you can see from the video, I wasn't the only person shooting pictures. That's Micah taking pictures with his camera.

Ostuni: "La Citta Bianca" (The White City)

2009-06-03T20:38:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, May 24, we left our first hotel, a beautiful Masseria, and cycled to our next hotel. Along the way we stopped at an ancient olive oil press and had lunch at a fascinating place called Il Frantoio. (that place deserves its own entry). After lunch we rode to our home for the next two nights - Ostuni.

The town is called La Citta Bianca (the white city) because its buildings are all completely white. It's an impressive site because Ostuni sits a mile from the Adriatic on the only hill in sight. The story is that Ostuni escaped the plague by whitewashing all the houses or that the sun shining off the walls scared off invaders. In any event, it's a very interesting place. The old city is full of small, winding streets and hidden alleyways but with a very busy and entertaining town square. On our first night, there was a large party on the square with traditional dancing, singing, awards and stuff. Later, after the official party ended, the square filled with young people who sat outside of one of the many cafes and listened to a rock band.

The First Dinner - Part 1

2009-06-03T12:45:00.000-05:00

The first night in our Masseria, the family went to dinner at the sister Masseria, since we would not have the chance to eat over there. There was a great deal of food consumed and it was all quite good and memorable. Some of it was truly impressive and glorious.

This post will first cover some of the antipasti:

Feta Risotto with Ham & a pepper bernaise sauce

Eggplant rolls

Fresh prawns

Frito Misto

Prosciutto with Mozerella

Marinated salmon with a yogurt and lime sauce

The salmon was beautifully salty and very powerful. It had a salmon taste the same way prosciutto has a ham taste and the yogurt sauce was just enough to cool it down.

For wines, we had a Malvasia white, one of the local varietals, that has a pleasant and fresh taste that is good for the sea. It is sort of full like Chardonnay as I recall but with a bit more of a backbone and acidity. The red was an Aglinnico Cantine Cardone 06.

Unfortunately, I was too busy eating and soaking it in to remember to take too many pcitures ... I broke that habit pretty quickly. To give you the idea of the quality, though, here is a picture of the door I saw on the way out ....

Rome in a Weekend

2009-06-02T03:39:00.000-05:00

We arrive in Rome on Friday afternoon and went on a whirlwind 48 hours. Rome is, well, Rome. It is overwhelming on first and, perhaps, second glance. Everything is outsized: the crowds, the monuments, the scale, the age, the prices! But, in the end, it was a transformative experience. When I first arrived, I swore I would never come back but, by the time we left, I was planning our next visit.

The picture is a detail from the Trevi fountain. Maybe it was the second coin that changed my mind about returning to Rome. We did all of the regular tourist things so next time, we can focus more on the less visited sites. Don't get me wrong. Everyone should see places like the Trevi fountain but it is hard to enjoy it when you are joined by several thousand of your new best friends.

Lance Armstrong: LIvestrong

2009-06-02T03:27:00.001-05:00

This is how close I was when Lance Armstrong went past me during the final Time Trial at the Giro d'Italia. I have better pictures but this one captures what it was like for me.

Almost. After he went by, my emotions swelled and I began to cry. Perhaps it was the small link: two cancer survivors riding bikes in Italy. Even now, almost two days later, I can still feel it. Maybe it's best not to analyze it and just feel it.

Livestrong. That's the name of Lance's anti-cancer foundation and, during the trip, those words kept coming to me. I had decided to approach life that way. Until Lance rode by I hadn't realized what that really meant. Here was a guy who was as good as dead who went on to win the Tour de France seven times in a row. Even more important, though, here he was riding in the Giro d'Italia 2 months after he broke his collar bone in three places. He was not at the top of the classification. He was riding to support his team mates and struggling over a hard course like every other rider. He may never win another bike race but, in Rome, he showed me what living strong means.

Back in the USA

2009-06-01T20:43:00.000-05:00

We didn't have much access after the first couple of days so this is the first chance I have had to update. We are stuck in DC tonight because our flight was delayed in Rome by the first rain we saw in two weeks! I'll fill in the details with some pictures in the next few days but for now let me just give you the highlights: sun, sea, and wind until Friday and then it was La Dolce Vita.

We cycled the Salento peninsula in Puglia. Salento is a dialectical corruption the words for Sun, sea and wind and we had them all. Beautiful rides along the most gorgeous coast you can imagine, temps in the '90's, and a gentle breeze for the most part.

In Rome, we hit all the high points: Ancient Rome, Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps but the coolest things happened on sunday. We stumbled upon a beautiful church that was not in the guide mass and attended Mass followed by an impromptu organ concert. Then we walked along the finishing chute of the Giro d'italia and THEN we watched each of the riders go by us twice on the Ponte Margherita. And, yes, I saw Lance up so close he almost knocked me down!

Arrival 5/21

2009-06-01T07:04:00.000-05:00

More notes from the little black book:
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Not even 1 day & already I have filled up nearly four pages. Am I a tormented writer hiding in this lawyers shell? Maybe I write to stay awake at this point to continue the push towards Savalletri? And for the record, a prosciutto & cheese sandwich on a quick flight beats a bag of pretzels hands down.

The Rome airport definitely has a chaotic & hectic bustle about it. The entire thing starts with the non-linear approach to lines in the Italian culture & continues through the boarding of planes as far as I have seen. I am certain there was a customs desk in that airport somewhere . . . but we did not see it. Guess the E.U. means the Frankfort customs was good enough. Though we would like to get an Italy stamp in our passports. Maybe in Bari. . .

Finally arriving in the first destination with some time to eat and enjoy. While exhausted & not thinking entirely clearly, the stark juxtaposition of the modern and ancient struck me on our ride here. The modern free way & rail system cuts through farms and ancient plats that dot the landscape both inside & out of the cities. It is much more integrated, much more a holistic part of this place to see the modern & ancient together in an seemless blend from the urban to the rural and back again in the span on only a few kilometers.
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Backlog of Stories

2009-05-30T11:26:00.000-05:00

Four of the eight from the trip are back safely in Little Rock after 32 hours of travel, a missed connection, and the drive from Dallas.

Internet access was intermittent during the second part of the trip, so there are days and days of stories, thoughts, and pictures to share as time unfolds. It will likely take a few weeks to slowly parse them out on here . . . at least that is how I am planning on going through my little journal.

I took notes because I wanted to be actively engaged in the vacation and not because I was thinking ahead to a blog. I am grateful to get to share our experiences with everyone who is reading this and rest assured there will be more pictures and words to follow soon.

I believe there are over 4K pictures taken over 6 different memory cards at a minimum. Several of us got pretty good at taking a quick snapshot from the bike, but eventually there are only so many pictures of olive trees you can take. Even though each tree is beautiful and unique, there is so much more to document and some things must be left for stories told out loud and to the imagination.

2009-05-23T20:07:00.000-05:00

Here is what it is like to ride in Puglia. This is not the most scenic portion of the trip but it is good riding nonetheless. On either side of the road you see really old olive trees. Briefly, I turned the camera around and you can see Karen and Nikolai riding behind me.

On the Road to Monopoli

2009-05-23T10:39:00.000-05:00

This is a short clip of the folks on the bike trip rounding a corner on the way to Monopoli. The weather is gorgeous. It's in the '80's during the day and in the '60's at night. It's not humid and there is not a cloud in the sky.

Catching Up on Thoughts - The plane rides

2009-05-23T09:02:00.000-05:00

We have a few hours free and I thought I would take the chance to put a bit of the little journal I had been keeping on here. I have taken over 300 pictures since I got here, some good, some bad, some utterly atrocious, but I donàt have the memory card reader my father is using to load them. This means you are stuck with my words alone for the time being:

An Easterward Excursion
or a recor of the experiences and memories of Puglia

It has been some time since I last wrote about journeys or thoughts. Perhaps this will do both. In the air, the first step to Italy with my family, on the way to Dallas, it is the first time to start really preparing for this vacations. My head has been muddied and muddled for most of the past year. I hope to drop the facade and truly relax and enjoy this trip. This travelogue will have notes, ideas, inspirations and, perhaps most importantly, a record of the photographs taken.
-05\20\09
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The travel has begun. It is most certainly benign so far. I am now on a flight to Germany, watching amovie I never saw in theatres and exhausted already. Actually, since it is midnight in Italy, I donàt mind the tired. I am getting anxious and maybe a bit nervous. I want to be excited, and that may still happeb yet.
So far? One bad glass of red.
One gin&Tonic, through the airport
One airline G&T added to that mix ... though I did not see the Campari and would deifnitely have chosen that. Forgot this was a European airline.

Looks like I am in Canadian airspace. Must let Robert know he was right.

Sleep was not very conducive. I did try but instead, I am managed to watch a few movies I had missed, have a few glasses of wine & stumble through customs. I blinked and missed the cognac (after the meal).

Another plane & off to another country. Customs & security in the middle of the Frankfurt airport caught me in full sleep deprived mode.

Stopover in the eternal city ... or, well, the Rome airport. It is the land of cool. The number of suits, snazzy sunglasses, and fantastic shoes is legion. I must say I am pleased with this, but I am vain and self-possessed clothes horse. Even the 80 year old grandparents a few feet away exude a sense of style and cool while waiting for the plane, from shoes to glasses, jewelery and suits in between. There is a gauntlet of designer boutiques upstairs . . if this were not my first day, I would have already spent all my money.
WIth a three hour layover on the way back here, there can be purchases then.
05\21\09

The Dinner Table

2009-05-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

This is slightly overexposed pic of our dinner table. From left Marco, our guide, Nikolai, Karen, Micah, Kelly, Joel.

I could hardly speak during our introduction to the group. We were supposed to say who we were and why we came on this trip. But as each of my boys said, "We are John and Karen's son" the emotion welled up. When it came to me, I could not get a word out. All I could remember was my father saying as he became sick last year "I just want my family around me." Finally, after what seemed like forever, I said that this was a special day because I was in Puglia with my family. My dad's death, my cancer, my surgery made me appreciate how special this trip was going to be.

More and more I understand how past and future come together in the Puglia present.

2009-05-22T23:56:00.000-05:00

Here is picture of the golf course at Masseria Torre Maizza. The course is full of 5-750 year old olive trees.

A Briefest of Beginnings

2009-05-22T17:15:00.000-05:00

It is rather early here, just after midnight, but I wanted to add my thoughts to the journey.

I have been fortunate enough to be John & Karen's oldest son and first, I must express my thanks to them for this utterly memorable family vacation. It has already been the trip of a lifetime and there are days yet to come and miles, or kilometers, yet to ride.

I have been recording my thoughts and my impressions in a notebook. Amazingly enough, I have managed to fill nearly 10 pages in the brief time we have been here. I may yet transcribe a bit of that as time progresses, but I must be awake and ready to hit the bicycle in a scant seven hours.

I have been struck by the two worlds we have seen - the juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern has certainly remained with me. I was the caddy for my brothers and fther as they golfed this morning in the middle of a field of five hundred year old olive trees. The trees are so old that many of them are held up by cinderblocks so their own weight will not topple them. I have taken over two hundred photos since we got here at seven p.m. Thursday, local.

For those of you reading this, I will assure you that this is the trip of a lifetime and that we have much to share when we return and I will endeavor to share as much as I can when we find out ways to the internet while here. A great weight was lifted from my shoulders while here and I can only hope that all of you - m friends, family, and acquaintances - have the same chance this year to feel rejuvenated and reborn.

One warning, I have been reading Hunter S. Thompson on this trip, so my writings may be a bit . . . colored by this. Hammett is next.

First Ride Done

2009-05-22T11:39:00.000-05:00

We finished our first ride today. In the morning, Andrew, Nikolai, and I played golf. It's a nine hole course set among really old olive trees. It was a challenge for me but fun for the golf players. Joel caddied and Micah carried our cameras. Karen, Kelly, and Dawn went to the beach.

In the afternoon, we went for our first ride. It was short - about 7 miles total - but fascinating. We rode through olive groves to the site of an ancient ruin. Here is a link but it's in Italian. It has pictures, though.

I was pretty emotional today. It was enough that my family was here with me but the fact that I was riding a bike with them was a powerful feeling. Tomorrow we go to Monopoli, the hometown of my grandfather. That will be a special day to have my family with me.

BTW, if you receive an email notice that I have posted and you want to reply, don't reply by email because I am not checking email and they won't show up on the blog. Comment on a post on the blog itself. Grazie a mille.