The Italian Adventure...

You know your holiday begins when the plane you're sitting in magically lifts off from the ground and zooms through the air at a terrific speed that only something made of metal and stuffed full of human beings can do. This was my first plane ride and may I say it was quite an experience.

And from a map enthusiast's point of view it was a Cartographer's dream. I loved seeing Britain, France, and Italy from the sky, but that wasn't my only joy of being up in the air. Seeing clouds and their shapes, and the differing levels making their own little islands and mountains and forests. It was just brilliant.

As for the touch down, it was quite relieving for a first-time flyer when the entire cabin exploded, I know that's probably not the best word to use for plane travel, but the cabin exploded with applause. It's only a bit strange when the plane actually touched down, and the Italians' applause turned out to be a bit premature.

Stepping out into the heat of the southern Italian sun I could hardly believe anyone could survive in such a climate. After a short car journey we arrived at the house we would come to call home for the next two-weeks.

Needless to say it was lovely and we went traveling all about the place from our Italian HQ. One of my first comments about Italy was that it was 'sooo blue!' That was obviously a comment on the sky and sea, and not the land itself. The land was, well, Italian, covered in Olive Trees and Sunshine. Oh how Italian it was.

One of our first outings was to a town called 'Lecce' which was absolutely spectacular as my first taster of Italian life, architecture, and heat. Leaving more than half the group on the pedestrian roadside eating superb ice cream we travelled a bit more taking pictures, knowing how to get back due to this...

Or so we thought, as we returned to this...

And this...

It's fair to say, we were lost, though we returned, unscathed, and unflattened. Italians like to drive in their historic and pedestrianised town streets. And for that matter, the Italians like to drive almost anywhere, in a very lazy and speedy fashion, turning without indicating at eighty-mph and even tailgating a police van through a traffic jam.

Moving on, the holiday went on very much like this for two-weeks. And we saw many brilliant and mystical things. Much to the disappointment of my more atheistic readers (Hi Tag!) these mystical things were mainly churches and sanctuaries. From golden ceilings...

To altars in catacombs...

And Cathedrals in fantastic mountainous villages...

But none of these things matched the magnificence of the white city of Ostuni. From the motorway you see a white stretch across the hills in the distance, and when the sunshines the whole city glows. Then, following the road, you journey down into an Olive Tree Forest. For miles this forest stretches then the road climbs a hill and you look over the forest and up at the hill...

And Ostuni lies before you. White stones piled upon one another to form this city, the unknown brilliance of the south.

And that was a summary of my Italian Adventure. If you would like to see more photos then by all means click here. And until next time my blogging readers...

Carpe diem, until next time bloggers...