We have seen a dramatic change in Italy in the last few days. In Sicily and across the sole of Italy, we could feel the timelessness of the land. If a traditional Roman or Greek vessel had appeared, it would not have seemed out of place. The towns and villages have modern amenities, but we were still aware of the history etched into the buildings and in some senses, the way of life of the people. There is a dependence on fishing and agriculture underpinning much of life. Groups of older men would gather under a tree to play cards or watch the game with great relish. Now, after we have moved on north, in many ways we have sprung forward into the 21st century.
The guide book says that the marina in Cala Ponte is unrecognisable from the sleepy village it was 30 years ago. The new marina is state of the art, but in some ways I was slightly disappointed by it. The write ups had praised it to the hilt, but we found a few of the luxury facilities to be in need of some repair. The marina is predominantly filled with motor boats, including the boats that take the day trippers to see the nearby caves. It was fortunate that the slot we were in was particularly wide, because we noticed that the expensive looking motor boat beside us had not deployed any fenders. Some of the modern boats are not at all to our taste. There was one that Tricia described as “pig ugly”, but she then retracted that as being too unfair on pigs.
In the morning we walked into the nearby town of Polignano a
Mare. This has a gorgeous old town set on the cliffs above caves and we subsequently
saw was the number 1 place to visit in Puglia. We were able to wander through
the old narrow streets, which suddenly open out into piazzas. In one of these
there was a wedding, which allowed the bride and groom to bring a car to right
outside the church. The guests were all very excited and the tourists were
enchanted by it all.
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| Apparently this guy was a local singer and politician |
We walked through the town and along a stylish walkway on the clifftop. Here, we came a guy fishing from the cliff. He was casting his line out a good distance and then down to the water. We saw him with something on the line, and because we were high above the water we had a great view of what it was, a large octopus. Just as he started to pull it from the water, it came off the hook and swam away. The poor fisherman was distraught to have lost such a good catch, when he could actually see it on the line. I read the other day about a guy who regularly went fishing with his grandfather and his siblings The children were always disappointed when they didn’t catch anything, but apparently the grandfather used to say that if you were meant to catch something, it would be called “catching” rather than “fishing”.
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| Beauty must be in the eye of the beholder |
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Steve (and Tricia)
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