I have always wanted to visit Vienna, Austria’s capital, so was thrilled to be here for a couple of days.  It’s a large city with a population of almost two million but not too many tourists in March.  It is known as The City of Music thanks to Mozart and Bethoven and also as The City of Dreams thanks to Sigmund Freud.  While touring around on our first day we noticed a lot of people around St. Michael’s Church so walked in and were thrilled to find out a concert was about to begin.  We took our seats close to the front and for the next half hour listened to this wonderful high school band performing – acoustics were great!   Little did we know that the high school band were part of a world orchestra and were visiting from Bloomingdale, Florida.   Needless to say there were many Americans, or rather many proud parents, also in the  Church.  It was a great way to kickstart Vienna!  The next day we visited the Belvedere Palace as one of Marilyn’s favourite artists, Gustav Klimt, had an exhibition there. The first four pictures below are taken at the Belvedere Palace and the last one was taken on our walk through Vienna – tribute to Mozart.

Our visit in Vienna was short and sweet and then we were off to catch our overnight train to Rome.   We were thrilled to find that we had booked a private berth for the three of us and wondered how six people could actually sleep in there.  For Jim and I it brought back memories of when we travelled India two years ago with Dawn and Yves and our overnight train ride – not good memories I might add!!!  Even though space was tight on this train it was a whole lot cleaner but for this weary traveller sleep did not come easy.   So after fourteen hours we were off to pick up our rental car in Rome and head south for a few hours to Lucera where we had booked a bed and breakfast for the evening.    We were all pretty exhausted and this is the time in the trip where relationships can get testy!  Although he had driven in Italy before, Jim was re-adjusting to driving out of Rome and as you know driving in our little hamlet of Tidnish doesn’t quite cut it!  Marilyn and I were in charge of ensuring he got proper directions and because I was in the front seat, and his wife, most of that was left to me.   Following a map, as all of you know from reading my previous blogs, is not my strength and I wouldn’t say it’s Marilyn’s either.   Of course we have the GPS on the ipad which was helping but when you’re tired, a tad cranky and unsure of yourself it’s easy to get lost and so we did!   As a result what was supposed to be a three and half hour drive turned into a five and a half hour drive…….and then we arrived at our destination – see picture of Lucera below.

And what a wonderful stop it was!   Casa Cavalli is a beautifully maintained and restored old villa that has been in Antonella’s family for over 300 years.  It is in the center of Lucera where you are not allowed to enter with a vehicle unless you get a permit so thankfully they were able to get us one – maybe they could read between the lines in our email and realized we were tired and cranky!  However once we arrived that was all history as they were so welcoming and the villa with its surroundings were so beautiful.  We wished we could have stayed longer but after a good night’s sleep and a great breakfast we were on our way.

Next stop – Costanza – another place we picked on the map not because it looked great but because it was the right amount of driving distance for that day as we headed south.  The picture below was taken from our air bnb and the next two were taken across the street from our restaurant, La Cantina, and what a meal it was!   When I asked to see the menu she said it’s ‘oral’ and started talking English with a strong Italian accent.  It was one of those ‘typical’ Italian restaurants(I think) where you ordered an appetizer, then first course, then second course followed by dessert.  Not being overly hungry we decided to share and ordered one of each and thank God we did as it was tons of food, absolutely delicious even if I can’t tell you what it was because we didn’t really understand her ‘oral’ menu but it left us with no room for dessert!

Another great nights sleep – must be the wine – and we started our journey to Sicily.   Stay tuned for more!