April 17, 2010 – Leaving Lecce

April 19, 2010  •  Europe, Italy, Lecce, Puglia, Rome, Travel

How do you say goodbye? For some, you simply slip ut the back door. For others, you make the rounds, offering a special handshake or kiss. For me, I simply pout. I hate saying googbye, I hate thinking how long it might be before I return to Lecce. I hate thinking I’ll actually have to start making my own coffee in the morning, knowing it will take me a week or so to wean myself back off caffeine when I return.But even with a sense of sadness, I pressed on, leading the group from the hotel to the train to the hotel in Rome (yes, with a bus detour from Foggia to Benevento because they still had not repaired the tracks).I was surprised to find that the grape vines had sprouted in just the week that we had been in Lecce, and we passed the time chatting and sharing a bottle of wine Silvestro had sent us on our way with. Since we didn’t return to the hotel until nearly 8, we quickly met up in the lobby to head out for a pre dinner drink near the Pantheon, but once settled in, decided to stay for dinner – totally against my impulses not to dine on the busy piazzas surrounding the highlights. I ordered two portions of rughetta con bresaola for the group to share (arugula with a dried cured beef that is simply divine) at café on the Piazza delle Rotunda, and then finished my trip with the women with one last order of spaghetti carbonara, a bit egg-y, but still delicious. Odd that I didn’t photograph the final dinner of the group, but perhaps I just was out of energy, or perhaps anxious about trying to fugre out out everyone’s flight options given the “plume” from the Icelandic volcanoe. We retired early, which I guess is a good thing, but I could have sat on that piazza all night sipping prosecco and listening to the Andrea Bocelli wanna-be street performer. Nice to know I’m returning next weekend with my husband – with any luck, he’ll be there performing.

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