Max came to pick us up this morning and said to us "Get ready for a food spanking". He wasn't wrong. I wrote in my last blog post about the lunch at the olive oil plantation where the amazing cook, Alma, just kept walking out of the kitchen with dish after dish after dish. We thought the procession of food would never stop. We could easily have skipped dinner after that, but no, not in Puglia. I am going to leave this place with four more chins.

At 7:45pm, Carlo picked us up in the van and took us to another masseria called Masseria Frantoio. This is another impressive masseria where they grow everything they cook right on the premises (apart from the seafood). We arrived at 8:00 and Max asked the waiter when he should pick us up. The reply was 11:00. So we were in for 3 hours of constant eating and drinking.

We started with these magnificent little puffy bread thingies that were served with a tomato salsa. Then it was another 6 courses of pasta, salads, an incredible wild asparagus slice, delicious crumbed meatballs filled with mozzarella and a scrumptious ricotta cheesecake dessert. With paired wines for all courses where the glass was re-filled before you even finished your drink, we kind of rolled out of there with our heads spinning like a hills hoist in a tornado.

The next morning we went to a small town called Monopoli. We didn't pass "go" or pick up $200, but we did go straight to the marina and got on a yacht for a cruise down the Adriatic coast. Given we are the only two people on the tour, we had the whole boat to ourselves. We felt like rock stars.

Monopoli is a white, walled town right on the water and seeing it from the boat was impressive. There is also a German bunker built onto the ocean wall. A reminder of the second world war, although no fighting ever took place in this area.

We cruised up the coast, seeing a couple of pods of dolphins on the way, until we came to a town called Polignano a Mare. This town is built on a cliffside overhanging the ocean. It is incredible. They hold the Red Bull diving competition here annually where divers come from all over the world to leap 27 metres off the buildings on the cliff face into the ocean.

After returning to Monopoli, we went to a local seafood restaurant for lunch. Max insisted we try the scorpionfish carpaccio. We were hesitant but tried it in the end. It was absolutely delicious, and I polished it off post-haste. The only hiccup I had was when I squeezed the lemon over it, a thick stream of lemon juice shot out straight into my eyeball. Lidia burst out laughing. Luckily there were no other people in the restaurant at the time.

Lidia had a prawn risotto for main and I shared a grilled sea bass with Max. They grilled the fish whole and the waiter prepared it for us at the table. It was fantastic. We continue our run of not having one bad meal since we've been in Italy.

After lunch we drove down to Polignano a Mare and enjoyed a special coffee only made in one place. Apparently it's a secret recipe, but they believe it is coffee, sugar, amaretto, cream and lemon rind. There is a piece of lemon rind at the bottom of every cup. Whatever is in it, it tastes amazing. They also made the most amazing pistachio ice cream. After that we walked around the town and saw the ocean from the town walls.

Then it was back to our masseria for a siesta.