When we were in Italy last Fall, we visited Manduria, where Anna lives. She is Antimo Cimino’s mother and the sweetest lady on the planet. She works hard every day cooking and baking for her husband and family. This visit she taught me how to make her famous biscotti cookies. These cookies are like the
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Sad to leave Florence today. We were up and packed, then took a nice long walk around the neighborhood after our coffee knowing we’d be sitting for the 15-hour plane trip home. We said our goodbyes to Claudia at the BNB, and Maria (Antimo’s cousin and artist). Maria’s husband Ciro drove us to the airport
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M.G. Designs was our first stop today. I wanted to pick out a few of Maria’s beautiful pottery pieces to add to my collection. We figured out I could pay her with PayPal (since we don’t have credit cards until we return home). Otherwise, I would have had to go home empty-handed. (This is just
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A lazy start to our morning – so unusual for us – it was great. An older man was mopping the entrance floors and the stairs when we were going out – navigating wet stairs before coffee was fun. But wait! We left our room around 10:30 and returned at 10:45 because I forgot the
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Woke up this morning literally with a very cold shower. Apparently last night there was a gas leak in the apartment building and the gas was turned off at some point. Even though Antimo got up and turned it back on, I wasn’t able to get any warm water. Oh well, I moved a little
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The last day of our Roman adventure. And what an adventure it has been! Pyramid of Cestius. We took the metro to meet Luigi, an architect who lives in Rome near Piramide. He was coming with us to Ostia Antica. He told us about this pyramid which looked new against the backdrop of the ancient city.
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To strike or not to strike, that was the question (trains, buses and the underground metro). But really, the question was how many hours to strike? At first it was announced as 24 hours, then 12, then 8, and finally this morning before we left the apartment, we were told 4 hours. We planned on
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  Started our day with a cappuccino and a pastry, like anyone would do when in Italy.   To get to our destination we had to practically take planes, trains, and automobiles. We started on the Rome metro, changed trains and got off the metro in Piramide. Then we got on a train train (not Metro
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 This is the way to start the day! Antimo knew about this special coffee drink by the name of Cafe Leccese. It is made with espresso, bitter almond syrup (it tasted like amaretto) and rind of a lemon. Oh yummy. He ordered it for me at the airport and that made my morning! We arrived
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Last day in the Puglia area. Wow our time here flew by! The storm has passed and we are clear to take off to Gallipoli, on the Ionic Sea. Manduria Mercato Olives and nuts.Grains of every imaginable kind. Dried fava! I’ve looked forward to this market all week. Visiting the markets here in Italy is
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We took off today for parts unknown to Ricardo and I. We had heard about Altamura bread but that’s about it. And didn’t know anything about Matera. What a surprising day we had in store for us! Altamura When we reached the town, we went straight to the bread oven to learn about Altamura bread and
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All weather reports predicted a rain storm today, but we all took our positive attitudes to the beach so we could enjoy one more day.  Antimo conducted an impromptu exercise class with breathing, stretching, a little yoga, a few movements with weights and resistance bands, and voila! It wasn’t as if we didn’t need it
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