We drove from Altamura back into Puglia, with it's trademark flat groves of ancient olive trees as far as the eye can see. We arrived in Bari and checked into our accommodation. It was located right next to a castle built in 1132, which actually looks like a fort.

We wasted no time in getting out and seeing Bari with a walking tour. The old town is beautiful, with the usual narrow, cobble-stoned streets and ancient, balconied apartments. The difference in Bari is that each apartment has a curtained front door and many of the Italians keep their curtains open. You can see the ladies making pasta in their houses and then they leave them on trays outside their door in the alleyways to dry.

The tour was OK but not great. We actually had a whole family of Gregs this time. Mum, Dad and 2 little Gregs. They were all loud and obnoxious. To make himself appear smart the father kept questioning the tour guide, who didn't have a lot of experience. He would ask him questions like "and do you know where the chili originated?" and "isn't the two-headed eagle a symbol of Poland?" He chain smoked the whole time and at one point disappeared with Miss Greg without telling anyone and had everyone waiting for 15 minutes while they looked for a toilet.

Anyway, despite being inundated by Gregs, we did taste some local fare, like fried polenta and some awesome gelati.

The next day we went back to the alleyways and an Italian Mamma who had her pasta drying outside her room asked if we wanted to eat some. We said "sure" and she grabbed Lidia's arm and whisked us away to her friend's house in the next alley. They took us to a small dining room under the house and fed us orrichiette with a drink for 5 euro each. It was delicious and we were joined by a group of about 10 Spaniards who were very friendly. We thought they were Italians because they were speaking Italian, but then they explained to us that they were a language group from Barcelona and when they visit another country they all like to speak that language while they are there. Apparently they could speak Spanish, Catalan, English, Italian and French. And here I am taking 20 minutes to spit out one sentence in Italian. Sometimes I struggle with English!

After another night in Bari, we took the car and drove towards our next stop, Peschici. On the way we stopped at a place called Vieste, which is a beautiful little white-washed town right on the Easternmost point of the spur of the Italian heel. We had to drive for an hour on very winding, narrow roads to get there. When we did arrive the town was beautiful. We walked around for a while and took some great photos of this picturesque place. We were approached by a local lady who explained that her husband had just caught some sardines and invited us for lunch. We had just eaten so had to decline.

We then took the winding roads on to Peschici. This small town is right on the beach, also on the spur of the heel. It looks a little like Santorini, with it's white buildings and bright blue doors and windows.

After watching the sun set over the Adriatic, we went out for a cracker of a dinner at a place called Borgo Antico, which was recommended to us by two separate locals and it didn't disappoint. We had delicious food (and wine of course) served by a very patient waiter who helped us (me) fumble our way through the order in Italian. We finished up with a delicious and very generous shot of limoncello.