Italy Again

Tired, but still time for wine

Well, after a few glitches, we are off on our latest adventure. While exploring the Internet for possible places to visit I found the Puglia area of Southern Italy. They had these unique conical roofed houses called Trulli, and I thought it might be interesting to rent one of these. I mentioned this to Regis and she was immediately researching the idea.

The first “glitch” arrived when we discovered that these Trulli were in fact originally grain storage barns, but the locals discovered that the tax rate on barns was WAY less than a house so they built these trulli and lived in them. This meant that the majority of them were country houses, and since we try to travel “Car-free”, this was a problem.

A nice Italian beer

Next we discovered a nice interesting historic city in the area where we could find a good selection of apartments to rent. So the trulli idea was discarded in favor of this city called Lecce. We discovered a good selection of apartments that met our requirements. After narrowing it down, we inquired about the ones we liked best. Although most were listed as available, once we actually attempted to rent them they were not. One owner said that he had been renting to a friend who decided he wanted to stay. It seemed that this was the standard; these rentals are given to friends until someone else wants to rent it. They probably give the friends a “deal” until some tourist asked to rent. We ran into this problem so often we almost decided to look elsewhere. Finally we received a positive response and found a nice apartment for a great price. Then we tried to pay for it. Paypal would not accept our payment, nor would the listing company. It seemed that since the owner turned us down once, the system would not allow us to pay. Finally after a phone call to Italy the apartment was held for us without deposit and we could pay upon arrival.

Our Room in Rome

The apartment out of the way we decided to look into renting a car to drive from the airport in Rome to Lecce. This was downright scary. Reviews of most of the car rental agencies reported completely shady and dodgy activity. People reported being charged hundreds of Euros extra when returning the car for strange reasons, and one company routinely called the local police when anyone complained. We decided to take the train . . . .

Then Regis’s mom took ill and was hospitalized two weeks before we were to leave. Although all of Regis’s siblings insisted they were capable of managing their mother’s care while she took her well deserved vacation, she was hesitant. Finally our children offered to come home and help out and her mother rallied (As she usually does) and although will still need care, Regis felt comfortable with leaving her in everyone else’s care. My point is that by this time she NEEDS a vacation.