5/8 We drove through the center of the old town to get to our apartment which is in the newer section of Taranto, meaning it is only a couple of hundred years old instead of a thousand or two! The view of the sea from our apartment is fantastic. It is so relaxing just sitting on the roof where our apartment happens to be, and just looking out over the Gulf of Taranto.

When I walked onto the rooftop, I walked around the corner and much to my surprise, I found a little area where box turtles are living. They were sleeping so I just took a couple of photos and then photos of them eating the apple I fed them and carrots. Boy were they happy! Jim counted 26 of them, my goodness.

Again, a city with a beautiful promenade on the new area leading to the bridge over to the island which is the old town center. Of course the day we arrived, we walked around the area headed toward the old town and nothing was open for lunch so we just walked and checked out the area.

We found the Castello Aragonese (you have to make an appointment to go inside — COVID) so we enjoyed it from the outside. Notice the cannon on the left rampart. There is also a speaker there so we suspect that on special days and special ceremonies, bugle calls and the national anthem are played, the finale being the cannon being fired.

As we walked around the city we noticed all the renovations, repainting and color changing that has been done to many of the buildings – the old palaces or mansions. I’ll post a few of the photos I’ve taken because I found them fascinating and I love the colors. They really are doing a great job and there is so much renovating just trying to save these very old buildings. Most are now apartments/condos.

There were many different teams working to what comes across as a wonderful beautification and preservation effort. Painters below but we saw electricians, structural guys, the cable man, plasterers and many more. The projects will not be completed in a day but to keep the look and keep the buildings structurally sound, these guys are constantly at work.

Taranto is a huge seaport and industrial area. Lots of refineries on the North side of the city along with container ship load/unload docks and cranes, tankers off shore loading and unloading petroleum products, and on top of all this is a vast naval presence. While we did not capture any close-up photos, you can see evidence in the photos we did take of the gulf and to either side of our apartment views.

At what turns out to be a corner where the two promenades mentioned earlier meet, across from the castle, there is a really cool statue dedicated to sailors and mariners. In fact, it is so cool I have to show you two different angles!

Seems we’ve missed filling you in on how abbiamo mangiato qui (we have been eating here!) I’ll fix that now! Yesterday, Sunday, we were out and about our part of town, looking for decent walking shoes for Jim, maybe even a barber shop, plus I can always shop. A couple of the streets here have been turned into pedestrian only areas — we’ve seen this in many Italian cities, from fashion-center Milan to Agrigento down in old Sicily — and they are really neat, especially since you don’t have to worry about being hit by a car or scooter. Lots of higher end shops and restaurants line these streets or are around the corner.

So sort of kitty corner from the Foot Locker (yes, that is the store recommended to Jim by some athletes here in Taranto, we found this little restaurant, Le Due Fontane da Pastore. We arrived just as they were opening, around 12:30 PM, and asked to be seated outside — on a platform in the street adjacent to the sidewalk. Anyway, great food, so good that we went back today, Monday.

Our dinner partner arrived in her Mom’s pocketbook, slept most of the meal after saying hello and barking once at Jim, and came out to be with us only after everyone had finished eating. Lots of little dogs here or they are the big furry kind. All extremely well behaved, quiet and pretty well trained.

Today, we arrived at the restaurant again at opening time! You can tell from the occupancy rate! Yesterday was Mothers’ Day though and the place was packed. Rain threatened today so we opted to eat inside, plus there was less breeze inside.

I found this pasticceria yesterday or it could have been Saturday night and we picked up a loaf of bread and a couple of thee fig-filled pastries — you know, Fig Newtons! So today when we walked by, we could not help ourselves and I picked up a half-dozen. They are indeed three times the size of a Fig Newton. These served as our dolce after lunch and for our supper, along with a couple of left over bread sticks!

Oooo, have I reported on another characteristic of our travels — the ceremonial aspects? You know, weddings, funerals, festivals, etc? No change on this trip. There was the Artichoke Festival in Ramacca, Sicily, a funeral in Agrigento, Sicily, the 950th anniversary festival of the discovery of the body of Saint Cataldo (patron saint of Taranto) and the reconstruction of the ancient cathedral basilica here in Taranto and then today, a wedding. Track record is holding!

Wait a minute, I almost forgot – we saw a fire today. As we were walking home we came down one of the streets with a pub on the corner. Well coming out of one of the building vents near the sidewalk was a lot of black smoke. I said to Jim – I think there is a fire in that building! We got to the corner and there were two men sitting at a table eating and the workers were outside and the pub was dark and filled with smoke. One of the guys is screaming down the steps to the guy in the kitchen – not sure if he was telling him to get out or put it out! We kept on walking then we heard sirens and there were the firefighters! Not sure how bad it was but I kind of doubt they are open today. So now we add yet another thing to items you may not always see on a vacation. Hey, it gives us something write about!

Oh yeah there is one more thing. Last night as we were relaxing we heard music outside – loud music coming from the marina below. There was a band and they played for about two hours then stopped and about 10 pm they started playing drums with another instrument and it was the same melody over and over and over again. There was a festival in the town last night but the music was definitely down here. This annoying melody played for two hours not making it very easy to sleep. They finally stopped at midnight – phew!

Buona Notte – more from Lecce where we will be tomorrow.