Saturday, July 14, 2012

day 14 - the evasive post office


didn't make context tour
we found one post office, buy they didn't have boxes.  so they sent us to another one...which we couldn't find...but eventually did.  bought a box.

back to hotel to pack

load everything up to get bus to Termini station.  The post office was closed.

bad directions to post office that didn't exist and horrible encounter with awful rude taxi cab driver.  finally, i literaly ran carrying a bright yellow box to the post office i had seen from the bus window and made it there just before they closed.

plans to deposit bags and bag depot and go shopping were scuppered by the late hour and the long lines at the bag depot.  so we opted to relax and have lunch.  amazing lunch at the train station.  i had saffron risotto and josie had pesto pasta.  

on to high speed train to Bari.

arrive in Bari and wait in line at wrong ticket window so long that we missed the early train.  in the end it was a good thing because it gave us time to have some food and get my glasses fixed!  who would've thought there would be a really nice optical shop just across from the Bari train station still open at 7 pm on a sat evening??

eventually we made it to Castellan Grotte and our B&B. Our sweet young hostess picked us up at the train station.  Her name was something like Marijke and she's at university studying languages and spending the summer working at the family b&b which is mostly run by her aunt.  The home has been in their family since the 1700s.   it is an amazing stone farmhouse.
walk, bus, train, train, car