Tramontana

It’s August and sure enough most of the country is on vacation. I had a little mini vacation. Paola came here to Brindisi for the first time. I think my place impressed her with its rugged manliness. I think if my apartment didn’t “need a woman’s touch” I would be worried. We had a good time hanging out in this little town by the sea. Funny thing is we had horrible weather, of sorts. There is this northerly wind called the “tramontana” (from the mountains) and when this wind kicks up it makes a day at the beach no fun. It cools things down a bit, which is nice but the problem is when it’s blowing so hard it’s difficult to walk and sand is blowing everywhere. So this stupid wind ruined a weekend of beach fun. We had to go inland to Martina Franca. It was really strange to see the beaches around here empty in August but you didn’t dare get out of the car. We did get a little sun on Saturday afternoon but it was nothing like it should have been.
Then after battling the wind we headed to Naples to spend two nights there. Again I noticed how beat up and dirty Naples is but it has such potential that I feel like I’m visiting it before it becomes “discovered”. It has crazy poorer areas that I saw the last time but this time we took the funicolare up on the hill to a great museum and castle that have beautiful views over the city and the greatest thing is how quiet it is. There is even a nice neighborhood up there. Naples is so loud and chaotic that when you get up there it really calms you down. I feel I wasn’t thinking straight in the constant barrage of Naples, but once we got up high it felt so good. Now it’s back to work.