Today, we decided to take the train to the cute town north of Monopoli called Polignano a Mare. We took a train that was literally 5 minutes from one stop to the next and of course very quiet and modern (why can’t the US have this????). It was also super popular - all the seats were filled (although most were going further than we were).
When we arrived in Polignano a Mare, we make the obligatory stop at the first set of tents we saw (love us a market!) and Dave bought his new favorite cracker - Taralli - in several flavors! On to the city, itself! Much of the city is built on a cliffside, and there is a tiny beach nestled between all the cliffs. It was a bit cold for a beach day for us today, but it was awesome seeing all the other people jumping from the rocks. It’s pretty neat to see the buildings that were also built into the cliffs, which always left us wondering - how did they do that?
We walked around the old town and of course had some gelato! If you were wondering, we are keeping up our “one-gelato-a-day keeps the doctor away” motto, and have tried some traditional flavors (pistachio, straticella), and non-traditional flavors (salted butter, dubai chocolate) - nothing has disappointed, to say the least.
After 3 hours, we decided to take the train back home before a surprise! Tsana and Dave decided to book a surprise massage for the 3 of us, in a little resort not too far from Monopoli, so after taking the train back and getting ready, we took an Uber over. (Uber here is only Uber Black and are all professional drivers, so we have these massive vans to spread out in, kind of cool). The spa couldn’t accommodate all 3 of us at the same time, so the ladies went first while Dave read his book in the spa area, and then we switched places.It was very relaxing and our muscles definitely enjoyed it. They did have a “cold plunge” or their version of it, but it was about a foot deep, so we weren’t exactly sure what to do there, so we sat for a moment, and that was about it.
After the massages, we took an Uber back to old town Monopoli, and enjoyed a nice meal (Tsana looking a little crazy in her bib for her messy dinner) and walked the long way home.OH! And VERY important to mention - Anna had her first taste of REAL Limoncello…and loved it. Obviously. We still had some tiramisu left over from the night before, so we ate that for dessert. It’s probably not a good idea to eat something that contains roughly 3–4 shots of intense espresso before heading to bed, but we couldn’t help ourselves! We eventually got to sleep…
