Sept 10, 2018 ARRIVING IN PUGLIA

I arrived at the airport in Brindisi Italy at 3:00 pm.  Claudio was waiting to pick me up on time as he said holding a sign with KAREN written on it so that part was easy.  Claudio drove me to the small town of Villanova which is a town in Ostuni with Ostuni being just 4 miles away.  I had requested Marco, Claudio's brother to have a coffee pot available which he did with a single cup server using K-cups.  
The apartment was much smaller than expected but I will make it work.  The only problem I can see as I sit at the kitchen table writing this is the road between my apartment and the beach has some traffic (very slow traffic) right outside my window and the exhaust is BAD.  Marco said he has other places available if I want.  We'll see.  I met Filomina, Claudio and Marco's mom.  She is extremely nice as are her sons.  I think Filomina and myself will be getting together some night to cook something together.  
I needed to go to the extremely small market once it reopened at 5pm tonight to get cream for coffee, toilet paper, water and some fruit.  They were closed as is most businesses in the afternoon.  After 5pm, I walked there and met the shop owner, Peter who spoke very little English but showed me his Smart phone where I spoke into it in English and it translated what I said into Italian.  
Before going to the market I stopped a few doors down to the "BAR".  I sat and had an Italian beer and met an interesting couple.  The man looked much like Jeff Goldblum from Jurasic Park movie.  He was an engineer.  His wife traveled a lot with him and has just returned from Africa helping the under privledged with medical issues and clean water.  They gave me a good tip on where I should eat in town within walking distance.  I will be renting a car for a week because this place (Italy) is just so big and the towns I want to visit are too far to scoot to.
They have octopus at this restaurant as I have become kind of obsessed with a good octopus dish.  At the market I saw long hot peppers but could not get anchovies but maybe tomorrow.  The bread here as in most of Italy as I remember is so good. And it is available each day as I was told from Peter.
Out in the street right now as I write there are boys around the age of 8-10 kicking a ball back and forth in the street.  So safe. 
The waves are crashing outside and it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!