Time is never enough

How do I recap the days of Jason's visit when the best details could fill a book? If brief, a recap is the same as reading an outline or a travel itinerary. If nothing else, you could describe our travels as a bit out of the ordinary. We did not follow the flocks to Greece or try and hit the major cities. We followed our noses to sunnier skies and let a few long train rides rock us into serenity, only hindered by a few impossibile word puzzles and inconsiderately loud phone conversations. Side by side, we rode to our destinations, happy to be side by side once again. Realizing we had an extra day to spare the weekend before Easter break, we opted to Asissi, in central Italy. Indeed, it was not straightforward. By the time we had walked through the doors of our hostel that night (11:25pm) we had missed three trains, waded through ambiguous directions (with cell phone out of commission) and quite nearly given up hope, or, at least I did. The following days were much easier as we romped around the countryside over St.Francis's old stomping (or prayer) grounds. We climbed through a castle and picniced with bread and olive oil on a hill side. All of this we did in time for me to make it to Vulcanology the next day at 1.
Thursday, we hit the trail/tracks again.
Rain was forecasted for Tuscany and Cinque Terre. Sardegna was a bit complicated to arrive at. So the night before going somewhere, Saverio asked why we weren't going to Puglia. Well, good question. By noon the following day, we were heading to Bari. The accomodations I found were nothing more than a shared appartment that had been converted into rooms for rent, but it served the purpose. Our goal was to arrive in Monopoli to rent bikes and we were able to do so just fine, without missing trains. From Monopoli we made a grand loop of two days that took us up away from the Adriatic, to a city with very confusing signs but delicious fruit and into "trulli" country. Trulli are goofy cone houses that are everywhere around the town of Alberobello, which, in itself, is unfortunately dependent on trinkely souvenir shops. Out of town, however, was the real beauty. Here we found open fields of spring flowers and the most twisted, anchient olive trees you could imagine. Think of the old tree in Lion King and these olive trees were not far off. Riding through was unbelievable, and fortunately, I needed lots of breaks so we were able to see them from a closer perspective as well.
At the end of the day, we rode our weary bodies up the driveway to a bed and breakfast we saw as we rode by. They had a beautiful little appartment available that was impossibile to resist as the sun began to set over the valley filled with the goofy trulli. It put us in the best position for the morning, allowing us to ride to the beach without hardly pedaling. Although the water was cold, the coast was beautiful. At the end of the ride, the pain in my butt made the return to Bologna seem rather appealing. The folks in Puglia were really fantastic and they left us with a great impression of the region and doggy bags of food. Not so bad.

Perhaps Photobucket can elaborate on the details, not every night is for storytelling