Let's talk about food.

The food in Puglia is delicious. For this reason people are not happy when they have to wait for it.


There's seafood everywhere. In pasta, for example.

Mussels in Puglia are super good. The best I've ever had; I also tried my first fried mussel, which I had never even heard of. Reaaaaaally good.

Fish can grilled, with herbs and other delicious things inside.

Side note: This fish was grilled for my friend Eva, who spent her Puglia vacation with a terrible wisdom tooth-ache. She couldn't eat anything hard. On her second-to-last day, she had her tooth pulled by the friend of the father of our friends (yes, it's complicated, but the important thing to know is that our friends' father makes fake teeth for a living).
From then on, she was fine.

Fish can also be fried. In this case, it's sailing off the plate. Hence Francesca's un-photogenic expression.


You can eat sea urchins, too. But first you have to clean out all the sand and seawater inside them. The little ridges of orange are what you can eat; possibly eggs? I'm not sure what it is. The strangest thing is that the sea urchins are still alive while you cut them open and wash them out; all those sharp little spikes are moving around. It can be a bit unnerving.


When not stuffing yourself, it is worthwhile to go to antique markets and try on old-fashioned ladies' underwear.

It'll definitely fit you after all the eating.

The Most Beautiful Sea in the World

I just got back from my trip to Puglia, and I fell completely in love with the place. The hospitality, the food, the landscape. Everything. And especially the beaches. Puglia is the heel of the boot, and the southernmost part, where I was, is really shaped like a heel - a spike heel. So depending on which side of the heel you're on, you face the Adriatic Sea or the Ionian Sea, and you can drive between the two in a matter of hours.

The water is so beautiful - in every place I went to - that it's like a swimming pool. But better. Anyway, this post is dedicated to the sea in Puglia.

This is the water at Castro, near the southern tip. We went to visit the lovely Serena who took us on a boat tour with her father - the sea wolf - and stuffed us with food. This was my favorite seaside spot from the whole trip. The water is incredibly clear and blue. Grazieeeeeeee Serena!


At the Baia dei Turchi, in the Limini area. The presence of the man in a Speedo is accidental, but a good illustration of the Italian beach scene.


At Otranto. This is the water in the port of a small city. It's definitely not the port of Boston, that's for sure.


This is the beach right outside my roommate Francesca's family beach house. You opened the door, and you saw this.


The same water, with me in it.


I want to turn around and go back!

Train Down the Coast

Bologna is so empty right now that the streets seem haunted. And it's getting gradually more difficult to buy stuff - something, anything - because all the stores are closing. Not just the stores: the hospitals, public offices, university, you name it. Whether you have a hernia or a broken kitchen sink, the message is the same: wait until September. All of this means one thing: it's time to go on vacation . . . in another place!

Tomorrow I'm heading to Lecce (that's the heel of the boot for the geographically inclined). I will stay with various wonderfully hospitable friends. Oddly, my most hospitable friends all come from the same city. This is a clear indication that they are worth visiting, simultaneously.

The plan is basic: beach and food. Can't wait.

Summer Coma

I have been officially unemployed for a little more than a week. This is the first time that I've spent a week in Bologna without working in more than 14 months - all of my vacation since then has been spent in Cambridge or (even cooler) Korea.

So it's been nice to see Bologna during the day, on weekdays. To actually be able to go through the day without worrying about having time to anything not related to work - grocery shopping, ironing, cleaning. All the boring stuff. But I've also been able to see more of the people I care about, and I've eaten good gelato. I registered for a library card and as dorky as it is, I'm extremely excited to start taking out books. Even better, tonight I went to dinner in the hills outside Bologna to eat a meal that's already been immortalized more than once on this blog - basically, bread and meat and cheese. But it's so good.



The restaurant is in an incredibly beautiful place, which looks like this.



Or more specifically, like this.



It's really hot here, but I have lots of sunscreen - brought from the US, where SPF 20 isn't the highest level of protection and doesn't cost 30 euros a bottle - and tap water runs freely. I don't regret the decision I made to leave my job, at all, even though I really don't enjoy the uncertainty of not knowing what comes next. I do miss my coworkers, but that probably won't change, because they're wonderful. I'll just have to get used to it.



Bologna is emptying out. Almost everyone I know is leaving for vacation next weekend. And I might be going too! We'll see. Plans are in the works for a trip to southern Italy. Hopefully I'll be able to re-imprint my brain with something other than memories from my trip south during June, which was less than ideal (to put it mildly).

It feels like it's really time to relax and I'm excited. My anxious brain needs to calm down for a bit, even if I have to force it. This is what summer should look like.