Day 29 Friday 13 September

Vern is cold free and I think I have turned the corner with my worst day being yesterday. I am far from bouncy and firing on all cylinders so we planned to have a relaxing day all round. This started with a delicious and laid back breakfast on the deck, which to my great pleasure included my new favourite small creamy mozzarella (burrata).

I caught up on my blogs for a bit and then we headed out 10 minutes down the road to Monopoli for a swim and lunch – this time within lunch serving hours. It was a brilliant cloudless 28 degree and perfect for a swim day, all we had to do was choose the spot. There are several beaches or bays to choose from, not of the scale that we have back home, but small rocky or sandy bays. We picked the one closest to the town wall called Cala Porta Vecchia, parking in the same area as last night. Again unsure whether we could park as cars there were displaying city park tickets and some displaying none at all.

Despite the still day, the Adriatic Sea was quite rough with a decent and forceful swell coming into the sheltered bay, no worries it was wet and cool and we were hot, so we were going in. We enjoyed our swim in the pleasantly warm water one at a time so we could keep an eye on our bags. It doesn’t seem particularly bad for pick pockets and petty crime here, but as they saying goes – opportunity makes thieves.

We continued our relaxing by strolling inside the city walls untill we reached the old harbour which is just outside the wall, and then ducked inside the inner walls again to find the perfect place to eat. There seems no shortage of good places in Monopoli and it wasn’t long before we settled on a cool slightly upmarket restaurant with a special Octopus dish that caught my eye. They also had chicken salad which is the first time we have seen chicken on the menu in Italy this trip. This gave Vern another option other than “tortellini with ricotta” in this seafood prevalent area.

We ordered our choices and the waiter enquired if we wanted anything else to which we politely said no thank you. He responded asking if he might recommend a special plate today which was not on the menu. He explained further that fresh figs have just come in and it was served with salami and cheese, as our meals would take 20 minutes it would be a nice starter. Ok, he had sold us, as we both like fresh figs – they are extra sweet here too.

When the plate came out we were wowed, and the flavours were truely memorable. It was so good we slowed down and savoured every mouthful. The salami was in fact a Coppa or prosciutto type meat, the cheese a creamy burrata and completing the perfect balance of sweet figs, salty meat and creamy cheese was some nice crunchy iceberg lettuce. A drizzle of good EVO and whala – nomedy nom nom. Simplicity of superb ingredients, producing a classy and clever dish – my kind of food.

My main was grilled octopus, octopus cream, sweet pickled red onion, fried large caper berries and leaves, tomato water and warm potato salad. Simply perfect. Vern had crumbed lamb cutlets- tasted more like nice hogget with a vegetable cream, truffle and fried crumbed thin red onion rings. Wow we felt like kings and queens enjoying such a special meal and feeling more and more relaxed. This was a natural high as we were only drinking sparkling water!

On our wander back to the car I got a fresh pastry filled with cream and cherry similar to the one we got in Alberobello to have later with a coffee. Further browsing led us to a shop selling local products and much to my delight they had the Almond syrup from Alberobello. I have gone into lots of shops like this since the other day and not been successful in finding it. The shop owner offered us a taste of local wine which was very good, so that ended up coming back to the house for dinner. And you guessed it – also from Alberobello – a lovely white with a slight fizziness.

Pleased with my purchases we headed home, rested and finally caught up on all the blogs to date. Having had such a memorable meal, we were content to picnic so headed back into town for some supplies from the supermarket. Unfortunately I broke one of my cardinal rules – never leave home without a camera – albeit we had the iPad. As we drove into town at blue hour there was a lovely sunset behind us, and a big orange full moon in front. Darn and double drat.

I took an iPad shot, but really the stunning scene will have to be etched into our memories as the iPad just didn’t do it justice. Picnic shopping was again fun amongst the locals and we added to our repertoire some octopus salad, white anchovies, figs, creamy mozzarella (cause you cant get enough of the real deal fresh stuff) and to finish some amazing watermelon. We have never seen such huge ones in our life!

Tomorrow we move on to Otranto, and a splurge hotel. Just one little royal wish – I hope the bed is softer…..