A very interesting day Sunday 2nd, got on the train in Cefalu about 11.30am, this rail actually goes all the way to Rome! This was a great journey to Messina and beyond as the route was so scenic hugging the coast all the way there. We arrived in Messina and it took about half hour or so to get train onto the ferry, whilst we all sat in our seats, it is the only ferry that takes trains left in service in Europe. It only took about 20 minutes to get across to Villa San Giovanni where we spent the night before catching a 6.50am train the next morning to start our journey up to the heel. Our B&B was really gorgeous, very modern and close to the station. Looks like a pretty dodgy port town but we found a really nice restaurant which had lots of character and lovely staff, stuffed ourselves as usual, eyes bigger than the belly and got a pretty early night. We spent about 7hrs on trains Monday breaking the journey at Policoro in the Basilicata region in the Province of Matera. Just a little town off the beaten track, we really enjoyed our stay here
and had the most caring, warm and genuine people as our landlords here, another great B&B only been open 8 months and was very well done and modern, the owners actually own the bakery downstairs from the B&B and the aroma of beautiful fresh bread and goodies baking as we woke in the morning was just magic! Fresh croissants and pastries delivered to our B&B first thing in the morning! We were craving for some MEAT again, so found another butcher which turned into the best steak ever, it is amazing to have such top class butcher in a smallish town, everyone knows them as having the best meat for miles, Nino and his wife Rosa and son Francesco run the restaurant, Francesco having done courses on food and wine, knows his stuff, from the butchery point of view Ninos Dad opened a shop in the 1960s and Nino has followed in his footsteps, meat from all over the world, Argentina, Australia, Denmark, Scotland but we chose meat from Italy Chianina which is lean beef characterised by lines of fat to accentuate its flavour, cooked to perfection and delicious, we just had a tomato salad (I mean you havent tasted
a tomato salad so good until you try Italian tomatoes) and some fresh chips! What a great night we had, we were first there at 7.30pm but by 9.30pm it was packed! We were so well looked after by amazing people once again. An old lady was visiting and she kept saying to me bella, bella and Francesco explained that she loved my dress....she was soo cute!! Lucky we had a 1.7km walk back to the B&B to try and walk a bit of the steak off and fell into bed. The daughter from the family who own the B&B offered to take us to the station and arrived with a bag full of goodies all wrapped for our journey, 2 pieces of pizza, a spinach calzone and a ham and cheese pastry....just amazing! After two changes of trains we finally arrived in Lecce at 5.45pm Tuesday. Short walk to our B&B up a couple of flights of stairs and we are in, speaking to the owner by phone, nice room in a very old building in old town of Lecce. There is a nice big kitchen and big table with fridge and all you could want for your stay,
I dont think there is anyone else in house so the whole place to ourselves tonight! Lecce is a very old town low down in the heal of Italy, we have spent our first day walking all over town to see all the local sites, again tons of churches and a very old Roman theatre! Had one of best coffees today at a very local cafe with a yummy pastry to go with it.
