Borgo Day 3- So Glam!

Our private driver picked us up at the resort and drove us to do a winery tour in Alberobello. The winemaker gave us a private tour of the lovely Albea Winery.

The winery was the oldest in the region and the first to start bottling their wines.

Their wines were amazing! The wine was all very dry given that the winery was at higher elevation (400 meters) and grown in very dry soil. We had noticed the short vines when we drove in and thought that they had been pruned that way. In fact, the vines grow very long roots but very short trees. The word Alberobello literally means short trees.

The Apulian region is covered in olive trees. Many of the trees are centuries old and still produce olives. They are protected by the government from defacement or removal. The winery once thought that since there were so many olive trees that it might be a good idea to make wine barrels from them. The flavor from the wood of the olive tree made the wine taste terrible so the only wine barrel made from olive is the one in this picture.

We finished our tour with some tasting and due to language barriers, a limited chat with one of the original wine makers. While we paid tourist prices for our bottles, the locals came in and filled up their gallon jugs at discount prices from the tap.

After our wine tour our driver took us to see the Trulli. These cool little houses were built by peasants from the rocks they moved trying to farm the area. The buildings use no mortar. Legend says that the rocks were simply stacked so that when the tax collector came by they could quickly tear down the home and avoid taxes. Now these unique homes are a tourist attraction. Some are rented out as places to stay and many are shops.

Not built for even average sized people!

During our afternoon siesta a single long stemmed rose and two beautiful masks were delivered to our room. It was a fun preview of the spectacular night to come.

Saturday night was the formal awards night. Scott and I weren't even dressed this fancy for our own wedding!

Dinner was a delicious multi-course feast!

Awards were given and the entertainment began.

We were treated to a beautiful performance of Phantom of the Opera. Followed by another DJ (Mark Ronson) and more dancing the night away.

Una bella notte!

Borgo Day 2

Still full from dinner the previous night we headed off to our free breakfast. We were happy for the free meals since lunch the previous day had cost 60 euros for 2 salads and 2 beers. After breakfast Scott headed off to his mandatory 2 hour meeting- it was a work trip after all, and I puttered around our hotel room once I found it. (The resort is a maze of same looking buildings and it is easy to get turned around.)

After Scott's meeting we picked up resort bikes and headed to the seaside town of Monopoli about 15 K away. The sun came out making the water sparkle in brilliant shades of blue and acqua. Cars were very friendly on our ride into town and we were even cheered on by some locals lounging in their front yard.

Monopoli Vecchia was a beautiful little town. The locals are very welcoming. We were even greeted by a chorus of "Caiao!" from a group of school kids. The streets are narrow but that doesn't stop people from driving - although it does help to have a cool little truck like this one.

We puttered around up and down the streets. For lunch we had packed snacks and Scott picked us up some beer and some salty snacks (salato) from a local market. Unfortunately, we had no bottle opener but it gave me an excuse to purchase a kitschy little opener as a souvenir. We found a lovely spot with a stunning view to eat and soak up the sun before the ride back to Borgo. We had a nice tail wind on the way back and were making good time when suddenly a cat jumped out from some garbage bins and right under Scott's front wheel! Thankfully we were on heavy bikes and the cat got up and ran away. Gave us both quite a fright!

Back at the hotel it was time for our daily "Giro nap." We seemed to manage to wear ourselves out every day just in time to watch some bike racing and take an afternoon siesta. During our rest, a bottle of Limoncello arrived at our door. We took our refreshing treat down to relax by one of the resort pools. The pool was gorgeous but I was mostly entertained by seeing how fast the pool boy could run to help the guests. No sooner had we sat down than we were brought fresh towels and offered drinks. Then the pool boy was off running top speed to help someone with their umbrella. I was quite thankful that "No pants Pete" who was lounging in front of us wasn't anyone I recognized from Forescout.

Another feast for dinner and then it was time to get ready for the big "Under the Sea" themed party. Scott and I went as Gilligan and Ginger from Gilligan's Island. The venue was amazing! We descended some stairs into what looked like a giant aquarium. Projected fish swam around the walls. Giant fish sculptures, including a massive octopus surrounded a large dance floor. Hot dancers girated on platforms to the awesome DJ. It was a night to party! There were so many amazing costumes including jelly fish and even Spongebob, and I thought my luggage was extreme! We managed to find another Gilligan and Mary Ann but no Professor or Captain.

We danced until late and the happily stumbled back to our room. It was another fantastic day!

Borgo Egnazia- Resort life Day 1

Breakfast at B&B Oz was lovely. Anything we could have wanted was readily available. After filling our bellies and drinking the Keurig coffee, we were more than ready for a real Italian cappuccino. We found a lovely bar just down the street. (Not like bars in the US, bars in Italy serve coffee, pastries and later in the day- adult beverages. They are called bars because you typically stand at the bar, order, drink your drink and you are off.) This bar was hopping with locals getting their caffeine fix and like any Italian establishment, the coffee is heaven. They take it quite seriously and you'll find fancy espresso machines everywhere, even in gas stations! Typically Italians drink cappuccino or cafe (espresso). If you don't want a good strong hit of espresso, it's best to order an Americano and they'll water it down for you.

Our private driver soon arrived to pick us up and escort us to the resort. Huge disclaimer here- we are not typically fancy resort and private driver types of travelers. We are more economy, local experience, minimalist type travelers but since work was paying for us to be fancy, we did our best to assimilate. Borgo was insane. Handsome young men who spoke perfect English greeted us at our car to make sure we didn't have to burden ourselves with our luggage. We were shown to a lovely meeting room where we were greeted with our itinerary and a brand new pair of All Birds shoes. I am certainly not complaining about free shoes but this brought my shoe total to 7 pair that I would be lugging around - so much for minimalist! We were shown through a maze of old looking buildings and up some stairs to our room. The room was enormous all decorated in white on white farmhouse style. We had a lovely view of the sea and the resort from our room. We had one of the smaller rooms. Some guests had entire villas (houses) with their own swimming pools and private entrances!

Lunch was at one of the resort restaurants. We sat outside (covered) and when it cooled off a bit and started to rain, our waitress brought me a blanket to wrap up in so I wouldn't get cold. I asked the waitress about the history of the place since it looked very old. It looked to me like it might have been a monastery or an old village. But much to my disappointment, it was built from the ground up only 10 years ago. Seems a bit silly in a country full of ancient history and old buildings, to build a brand new building and make it look old.

After lunch we hopped on the resort bikes and rode to the small beach side town of Savelletri. Since it was cool and rainy the town was mostly deserted. We did find a gelato shop and enjoyed an afternoon treat.

Evening brought us to our first of 3 nights of parties. First we met at one of the large Villas for a pre-party to the Beach party. It was nice to meet some of Scott's coworkers but I found myself enjoying chatting with the bar tenders the most. (Americans from Silicon Valley are not nearly as interesting as the Apulian people.)

After the pre-party the plan was to shuttle us to the beach for a beach party. However, the weather was cool and constantly threatening rain so the festivities were moved to another area of the resort. Stations of food and drink surrounded long tables. Delicious Italian food all freshly made and grown on the resort awaited us- including this guy making mozzarella!

In addition to a full open bar, local wine was served in bottomless glasses. An amazing DJ from San Francisco was flown in to entertain us and get the crowd dancing. Such a fabulous day at Borgo Egnazia!

Italy part II - Bari

Unfortunately, I have been off my blogging game but decided to bring it back to life for this trip. 2 years ago we were fortunate enough to visit Northern Italy. Then we saw Rome, Genoa, Cinque Terre, Brescia, Venice and Montefalco. We thought we might one day return to see the sud (South) but with so many places on our bucket lists we figured it would be a while. However, we learned earlier this spring that Scott had made President's Club at Forescout and they were sending us to a stunning resort in the Puglia region of Italy. So, having only been out of the USA once, I was heading back to the only foreign country I've been to - Italy!

Finally, May 14th arrived and we were off on our long flight(s). Little sleep and 3 flights later and we arrived in Bari, Italy on May 15th. We took a nice train from the airport to Bari and stumbled our way to our cute little B&B.

Pietro was there to greet us. I tried my best Italian on him but he was determined to speak to Google translate and play back the translation to us. Our room was spacious and Pietro showed us to the lovely rooftop patio and poured us each a giant glass of red wine from the region. I'm not sure the wine did much to help us stay awake but it was delicious and we were ready to celebrate having survived our flights.

After our wine, we headed to Bari Vecchia (old Bari). There we saw a lovely castle with an art display of peppers in the moat. Then we wandered through the old streets. Bari Vecchia history dates back as far as 3rd century BC. It was a beautiful stroll. It was fun to see hand made pasta (orrichetti - little ears) drying in the sun outside of homes. We were craving fresh seafood and had no problem finding a delicious meal near the water. We stayed up as late as we could trying to acclimate but only made it to about 4:30 pm local time before closing the blinds and calling it one very long day.

Napali Coast Adventure!

As we waited for our boat that would take us to our campsite for the night, a beautiful double rainbow appeared over Hanalei bay.

Our captain was running on Hawaiian time so we had plenty of time to enjoy the cool, misty morning. Soon the small zodiac arrived and four soaking wet bodies and their black trash bags unloaded and we took their place onboard. Dark brown and toothless, our Native Hawaiian tour guide and Captain popped open a Coors and we were on our way. I sat on a cooler and Scott on the side of the boat. The "super moon", a full moon 14% closer to the earth than usual, brought rough seas. We bounced along happily with water splashing in our faces. Thankfully, our guide had been driving his boat along the rugged Napali coast for 30 years so we were in good hands. We cruised by beautiful beaches, into sea caves and under waterfalls. We chased the rainbow we had first seen in Hanalei all the way to Kalalau.

Kayaks are the only marine craft permitted to land on Kalalau so our guide slowed and we jumped in the water and he threw our bags after us. The pounding surf dumped us on the mile long Kalalau Beach but not before ripping the camera from its tether on Scott's leg. Tanned, swim suit clad bell hops ran into the breaking waves to haul our luggage in from the ocean.

After a useless search for the camera we surveyed the area for a suitable campsite. We had a lovely choice of accommodations. After checking out the beautiful jungle campsites we decided that the ocean view was too lovely to pass up. We set up our tent on the edge of a large, dry sea cave, hung our clothes out to dry and sat down for a sandwich.

Afternoon on Kalalau Beach brought a nap, a hike up into the Kalalau Valley for a bath and then another nap. While napping, some of the locals came to get a closer look at us. When I opened my eyes from my snooze, hermit crabs and red footed boobies had come in close to inspect the latest tour group.



Bath time



 The human locals were even more friendly and one was kind enough to warn us about the falling rocks and share his dinner of moi stew, he had caught the fish for the stew earlier that day. That evening our sea cave shelter protected us from the wind and the little bit of rain that gave us a beautiful rainbow over the towering spires of Kalalau. We watched the sunset and crawled into our tent early. The sound of the crashing waves and a camper's flute lulled us to sleep.



Where is my camera?



The next morning we were up early, we ate what food we could and donated the rest to those staying in camp. We had a long hike ahead of us and needed to lighten the load as much as possible. We topped off our water supply at the beach waterfall and we were off.

 The first few miles of our nearly 12 mile hike flew by. The morning air was cool, the trail was dry and our feet were still fresh.

Crawlers ledge was dry and since we've both hiked with plenty of exposure in the past (Angel's landing), the narrow path and steep drop off did not give us any pause. The trail zig zagged between beautiful vista ocean views, dense jungle greenery and stunning waterfalls as we passed a few hikers and numerous wild goats.

 Scott spotted a couple of fresh mangos along the trail and we took a short break to savor the sweet fruit. We made it all the way to the Hanokoa Campground in a little over two hours. The last three miles were the most difficult. We ran into a Kalalau Facebook friend who told us that it had been raining hard on the North end of the trail making the path wet and sloppy. Sure enough, the wet mud was slippery forcing us to carefully choose each step. Thank God for trekking poles or we would have both spend a fair amount of time wallowing in the mud (a favorite past-time of the jungle's wild boars). With my usual grace I managed to fall a few times but fortunately only my pride was damaged.

After 6 beautiful, exhausting hours we made it to the trail head at Ke'e beach. I spied a couple of guys who had been leapfrogging us on the trail and asked them if they'd mind giving us a ride back to our car which was hopefully still parked in Hanalei. They agreed and we piled our stinky, sweaty stuff into their car and were thankfully done with walking.

As Scott went to check us in at the Kauai Marriot Beach Resort I started organizing our bags and unloading the car. My muddy legs and horrific odor was drawing more than a few looks from the Marriott crowd.

After learning that I wasn't trying to steal the luggage cart and was actually checking in, the bell boy drove me in the golf cart to a "quicker" entrance to my hotel room. Meanwhile Scott ditched the rental car. Before I could even finish scrubbing the red dirt from my toes, a bottle of Champagne was delivered to our room compliments of Marriott. Turns out they were congratulating us on our nuptials and not just thanking me for taking a shower.

Freshly scrubbed and completely famished we enjoyed a lovely dinner poolside. The fish was as fresh as the night before but this time we didn't have to do our own dishes in the "big sink" aka the ocean. It was the perfect ending to our honeymoon and the perfect beginning of our lives together as husband and wife.