Otranto and iPhones

I’m sorry I haven’t written a post in the last few days, it’s been a bit of a crazy ride! Last night ten of us took the bus to the beach in Gallipoli and went clubbing from midnight until 6am! Well at least it was supposed to be until 6am- we missed our bus so we didn’t get home until 10, but it was quite an adventure!

Anyway that’s just the reason this post is late. On Thursday we took the bus to Otranto, another seaside town similar to Gallipoli with a mix of medieval castle walls and neon pizza signs. Our program director Nella taught herself the entire history of the city so that she could give us a tour! Now here's where my story gets sad. Literally 40 seconds after we began our tour, my camera battery died. Apparently I hadn't plugged in the charger fully and so it was completely exhausted. Story of my life. So this post is an iPhone tour of Otranto! The other day someone asked me, very nicely, if I thought I was decent photographer or if it was all just my fancy camera. Now's my chance to test that theory!

We started with the Cathedral, which was quite a hodge podge of decorative styles, but very impressive. The two most famous aspects of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunziata are the floor- which is a giant mosaic of the tree of life, telling the entire history of man, and the Chapel of the Martyrs, which holds the bones of 800 Christian martyrs who died during an Ottoman siege of Otranto in the 1480s. My favorite part of the church was the ceiling.   

800 human skeletons as the walls of the chapel! It was magnificently creepy and oh so Catholic.

We left the Cathedral and headed to the Castello Aragonese, a massive fortress sitting in the middle of the cobblestone streets and tiny souvenir shops like a giant wolfhound in a kennel of poodle puppies. The castle was built in the late 1400s with a huge moat and a drawbridge. We didn't get to go inside but the view of the harbor from one of the terraces is gorgeous.

Next we went to another church, this one a tiny little frescoed jewelbox perched amongst ivy covered houses. Santo Pietro, while smaller than my bedroom and barely capable of holding all 22 of us at once, had something the big cathedral did not. Unfortunately when the Ottomans laid siege in the 1480s they turned the big Christian cathedral into a stable and destroyed all of the frescoes. Thank god (heh) this tiny chiesetta escaped their notice or Otranto would have lost these priceless Byzantine frescoes as well.

We watched the sun set over the harbor and enjoyed the sea breeze coming over the wall of the city. I fell in love with a yellow catamaran bobbing just off shore. I would love to sail one of those someday, especially off the coast of southern Italy.

As the sun went down a bunch of us grabbed a table at a tiki bar overlooking the water and had some apertivi. This sampler plate is meant for four people to munch on for an hour while they sip their drinks and have meaningful conversations. Naturally us seven girls polished it off in less than 3 minutes. I had my new favorite drink, an Aperol spritz, which is Aperol (a slightly bitter orange liquor), prosecco, and soda water. Everyone here in the south drinks them. They are pre-dinner drinks so if you walk by any restaurant between 6 and 9 you're sure to see the little orange goblets on every table.

The sun set and my iPhone camera struggled. There were also a surprising amount of weddings in Otranto for a Thursday night! I personally saw four brides and grooms and I love the tradition of everyone on the street stopping what they were doing and clapping as the couple walks by. It's like the entire city is congratulating them. Maybe when I get married I'll use my budget to pay everyone in my city a dollar to do that.

Dinner was incredible. I met up with the same group that went to Gallipoli for dinner last week and we lucked out with a big table at a popular restaurant on the beachside piazza. I had spaghetti alle cozze (mussels) a it was a revelation. We ordered a really great white wine and feasted on seafood.

After dinner we wandered around the piazza, which for some reason was decked out like an American carnival with food trucks and twinkle lights and a couple game booths. Since we had an hour to kill we all decided to get exactly what we wanted for dessert, whether that be a candied apple, a nutella banana crepe, or some creamy cold gelato. I went the gelato route and got extra dark chocolate and coconut, which tasted like a Mounds bar.

It was another great night! Leaving the south next week is going to be hard.