21 - 22 October 2023 - Brindisi

Saturday started and ended with sport. We had our breakfast while watching our youngest son playing cricket in Australia. His team’s home matches are all streamed on the internet, and when we checked he had just gone in to bat. Isn’t technology wonderful, to be able to follow his progress from so far away.

After this, the first order of the day was to resupply for the next few days.  One of our great pleasures of our trips is to find the local produce and interact with the vendors.  We tracked down the markets for fish and fruit and veg, both conveniently located next to each other.  We were lucky with the fish market, as although it was still before 10:30, they were closing up, with almost nothing left. You have to be early! There was enough remaining for a couple of meals for us (which were delicious).  In the Fruit and Veg area, we went from stall to stall, buying what we considered to be the best examples of each item that we could find. After this, bread from the bakery and then a wonderful cheese shop. We seldom  find anything like this in the UK any more.


Later we walked around Brindisi, taking in the major sights, including the statue of Virgil (not the one in Thunderbirds) who apparently died in Brindisi.

In the early evening there was a most spectacular thunder storm, with almost continuous lightning visible for a couple of hours. This stopped briefly while we were watching the rugby. At half time, Chris and I ventured out to the stands on the waterfront, in the hope of buying crepes to eat, but alas, they had all decided that no one was going to be mad enough to be out on a night like that, and had closed for the evening.

Sunday started with one of the enduring pleasures of being here, coffee and pastries at a nearby café for breakfast. Then it was time for Chris to head to the airport for his flight home.

It must have been the day of flying insects, as the outside of the boat was soon covered in them, fortunately they did not invade below deck for some reason. Some were not fast moving and therefore easy to brush off, but all were irritating.


A war memorial to those lost in the First World War


The statue of Virgil

These columns were found when a local petrochemical site was build built. Now preserved in a municipal building  

We always wondered what the netting on old style ships was for, obviously storing the rubbish bags

This is a base for vessels that rescue migrants, trying to cross from north Africa

The inevitable line of men fishing from the quay, available in all ports


Before dinner we heard the sound of drumming in the distance and went to find what was happening. It was a procession organised for the Puglian Pro Loco groups. These are organisations set up to promote the towns or regions and their culture. They are part of a nationwide organisation in Italy. The procession had about 20 groups which featured people dressed as the characters from some aspect of their town’s history, mostly from the medieval period. Some told a story, outlining specific characters, and others had musicians, and others just walked.










Miles today               0  

Miles in 2023      1280

Steve (and Tricia) 

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