The rain had stopped by the time we got to our seaside hotel in Porto San Giorgio but the wind was blowing hard and the seas were rough. It looks like that has calmed down this morning and the sun is out, coming in our window-with-a-view. This is what Sandy wanted -- stay put for a few days by the water.
Restaurants abound, not like Conversano. Sandy talked to the Guernsey couple while I was fetching the car and they were trying to decide what to do -- go to Rome, go to Greece -- as there's no way that they could spend a week in Conversano !
The Autostrade service centers are amazing places. It's like walking through the Costco entrance to get in and out. Loads of grocery items, toys, wine etc. etc. to tempt you. The "barrista" (or barristo ?) cranks out coffee, Italian style which is espresso, by the hundreds per hour. Two or three of those huge multi-station espresso/cappuccino makers are going constantly. It's definitely an art form, they way that they work. I'd guess that 99% is espresso orders, the balance being cappuccino (me !). Pay first then come to the bar with your receipt; that's how the food works too.
At our hotel, we're allocated two internet / wifi connections. That's a bit of a pain with an ipad, two iphones and a laptop. However, Microsoft came through with a solution in the nick of time -- actually an update that came through that a.m. -- many more features on the wifi front, including sharing. So I now keep the laptop connected and two or three devices are connected via it to the hotel's wifi. It broadcasts an SSID and if you go to the Task Manager, you can see both connections. On that panel where you turn on sharing, you can see the connected devices. This is all new and timing couldn't be better.
Perhaps the next release of IOS will add those features as well, since I find that my phone's radio is better at picking up the wifi signals.
We ate here in the hotel, likely the only time in the three nights that we're here. That had some surprises. How about our bottle of wine on the bill for 4 Euros ? We only drank half and it's up here in the room. How about the surprise addition between our appetizer and main course of a bowl of mussels and a bowl of snails to share ? These weren't escargot. These were small, 1/2" diameter snails, prepared much the same way as mussels, i.e. in a broth. We had to ask the waitress how to eat them -- pull the meat out with a toothpick. This is definitely a hands-on task ! Watching other Italians eat mussels is also interesting -- they pick up the shell with their hands and gobble up the mussel, shell to mouth, no fork required. That actually makes more sense as you get some of the cooking broth at the same time.
I went outside on our balcony for a second to look around -- it's hot. This is the view north ...
Restaurant after restaurant, umbrellas and sand ... It will likely be busier than yesterday, given yesterday's weather, but I don't really expect t to be busy. When we entered the hotel restaurant last night, there were only a couple of other people here but it quickly got to 50% full; everything comes alive after 8pm, restaurant-wise.
Onward ... home soon ...
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