Adventures and Other Happenings

When I started planning a trip to the southeast corner of Italy in late 2017, I knew very little about the "heel of the boot." Earlier that year I began following dozens of different Instagram accounts - travel and lifestyle bloggers, photographers, foodies, vineyards, resorts, restaurants, tourism organizations - all with a focus on Puglia (poo-lee-ya), also known as Salento for the lower portion of the region. Instagram has become one of the primary tools I use to research my travel aspirations, and it has served me well. Like other channels of SM, however, it can become a rabbit hole of epic proportions. I was targeting late May 2018 for the trip, as the cooler spring temps were transitioning to warmer Adriatric breezes. While Puglia isn't as popular a tourist destination as other parts of Italy, this time of year was ideal for fewer crowds and lower prices. Despite wanting to be close to the water, I had done research on a centralized inland location from where ...

During our October 2015 trip, we had only one day/night on the itinerary for Agropoli, the town where Jeb's grandfather was born on the southwest coast of Italy. Despite Jeb's attempts to reach out to his American relatives for clues of family ties, he had no contacts there. Decades and generations had passed, and with them, the treasured connections to long-lost relatives. Most of his grandfather's (very) large family had immigrated to America, so any remaining family in Italy would most certainly have been distant cousins, perhaps belonging to branches of the family tree several degrees from his grandfather. Nonetheless, we set out to explore the small city on foot, hoping that maybe, we'd get lucky. Once an ancient maritime settlement, Agropoli is now a normal working-class town. It's rare to find anyone who speaks English there and tourists are limited to Italians who come to the seaside on holiday. A beautiful beach with a smattering of hotels is the ...

I've always been reticent to share this very personal memory of my first trip to Italy. But for some reason, I'm compelled to share this "publicly" now... My first 48 hours in Italy, in 2012, were a whirlwind. Rome was overwhelmingly beautiful and bustling. Jeb and I were in the express lane to see all the major sites in two days before joining our friends in Tuscany. On this particular day, we saw the Vatican on a special night tour that they only offer during the off season. After sitting in the Sistine Chapel for a good hour, tears rolling down my cheeks from sheer disbelief and wonderment, we walked through the long corridor of art-filled rooms leading to the museum's exit. I remember feeling a bit numb and unimpressed, as if nothing could possibly trump Michelangelo's most famous and treasured work of art. "Oh, yeah, there's another mural..." "Oh honey, look, more ancient statues..." I was also feeling claustrophobic, perhaps the...