Oct. 6th Sat.

Possibly LAST post

With the weather being cloudy, rainy and a bit on the cool side, I decided since tomorrow I will be 63 that I would go to Brindisi and stay for 2 days at a spa hotel.  So today was, if I think too much, kind of sad.  So I won't think about the leaving part.  I'll look at Brindisi as another adventure.  I know it's got some really old stuff I haven't seen yet.

So today I decided to take my life into my hands again and drive to Carovigno.  Because of the one-way streets that are super narrow and the Italian drivers who absolutely love blowing their car horns mostly at me, I knew I might get myself into a tough situation in getting through a narrow, windy, uneven and now because of the rain, slippery road paths.  And being Saturday I knew more people would be out walking.  This added to the vigilance I needed to not hit anyone or anything. And the town is built on a big hill.  And my car is a 5 speed on the floor.  But I managed very well without incident and I actually found Gianni's apartment that I lived in 6 years ago.  There was only one way to get to his apartment and it took me several trips through all the roads on that side of the town to finally find it.  I wanted to say hello and goodbye to him one more time and I knew he would be home because of the rain.  I wish Graziella could speak some English as I'm sure she wishes I could speak better Italian.  I only stayed a few minutes.  I hate long goodbyes.
This town will always be special to me.

On coming back to Villanova, I as usual drove through the tiny town called Fontanella.  There are no stores there.  Just gated, small communities.  But on this road I have visited on a few occasions the many cats that congregate under a tree right next to the road usually all eating peacefully out of the one dish of cat food someone so generously gives them each day.  This road is definitely the cat road.  I think the people here treat their animals with kindness.

And that Black Lab Puppy!  He seems to have the run of the town now.  I always hear him even when he's down a few streets.  It would have been too easy to meet him every day for a walk but I didn't want to be sad when I had to leave.   I hear him barking right now.

I decided to wash my hair in the kitchen sink since there is too little hot water in the shower.  Not up for a cold shower to get my hair washed.  This has not been a vacation of luxury by no means.  But I got to do a lot and see a lot. And then there was the ocean.  Always that beautiful sound of the waves.

It's been a great 4 weeks and I wouldn't want to change anything.