We made it! After a very long Friday of flying, and even longer for Anna, we made it to Bari around 7pm. Of all the airports that we collectively visited (Traverse City, Michigan, Boston, Massachusetts, Washington, DC, Munich, Germany, and Bari, Italy), Dulles was the most um…interesting… We get off of our flight and then had an hour to get to our layover- plenty of time, right? Well, until we were herded on to this weird shipping container that was 50 feet in the air (we called this a “monster trailer”), and it took us to the other terminal VERY. S-L-O-W-L-Y. Eventually we got to the gate, albeit the slowest possible way. Another highlight was Anna’s first time in a lay-flat seat, which was hilarious. We actually have video evidence (see above).
One of the best feelings when you get to a new country is to have someone, holding your name, waiting for you at the gate. LOVED it. We got (a very fast-like 40 kph over the limit, fast) driver from Bari to Matera to our AirBnB and met our lovely host Franco. After a quick tour of the nice flat and some much needed showering (Dave was really smelly) we headed out for dinner. We found a very cute place for a late (for us, so at about 8:30/9pm) dinner and it was amazing! Orchette for Dave, spaghetti for Tsana, and carbonara for Anna. After dinner, we got some delicous gelato before heading home to conclude our first night. The “sleepy” town was actually pretty packed, and yes, they all dressed better than us (sigh…Europeans know what they are doing). Anna counted at least 12 dogs in about 30 minutes, so she is in heaven - EXCEPT that she doesn’t know how to ask if she can pet them in Italian, so it’s like watching someone reach out in slo-mo, and then realized there’s a glass window there. Either way, we are definitely starting the trip off on the right foot with good food and sunny weather!
