Reflections on the Road and a Small Moment on a Long Drive from One Side of the Peninsula to the Other, from Bari to Agropoli

A break on the road and a few reflections on favorite places including a moment at the Kafka museum, 2017, in Spain, 2015, and at the Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong, the Imperial Hotel in Japan, and the water in Sicily, 2016.

We woke up early in Bari, feeling good about the world.  Puglia had been everything we expected – lovely food, crowded beaches with lots of disco music and a wonderful medieval quarter. But it was time to move. The journey from the East Coast to the West Coast of Italy promised to be a quiet one. So we made our way out, past the industrial city, some kids walking with a soccer ball, an elder man standing in the street, chatting, the Italians being the Italians.

Only four days to go on our journey, so we’d make the most of it on our way through the curly roads, over mountains, through fields of olives and cactai.

Follow the sign for Potenza noted Caroline.

Two hours into the drive, we found ourselves on the way to Potenza.

Maybe we can find an Osteria, I noted.

Caroline pulled out her phone, found one, and set up instructions

And we wound our way to a nondescript Antic Osteria Marconi on Viole Marconi in Potenza.

It has a Michelin Star.

Dark on the inside with a few wine bottles, a waiter walked us to a table outside in a garden.

The food looks wonderful.

Dressed in purple, the little one lay out in the grass.

I joined her for the first of several mini conferences.

This little gem could be the secret of the trip we thought as food arrived, cod with truffle, risotto, etc.

The teenager sat thinking about getting back to New York City.

So Dorothy, tell me about your favorite places to travel, asked Caroline.

She rattled off a few places we’d been:

The Cumberland Hotel in South Carolina in 2018. I loved the parches with trees and humming birds the reading areas and tasking menus of wonderful continental fair.

The Isle of Sur La Sorge in Provence with the family in 2017, watching the little ones bounce on the trampoline, running from the trampoline to the pool, the last restaurant we stumbled into.

The full moon over the Hotel El Hombre, on par with the Taj Mahal, 2010.

The Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong, touring China with Virginia.

The Imperial Hotel Japan. Everything was scaled smaller. 1961.

The Oriental Hotel Bangkok, 1961, Mom continued. It had a swimming pool between it and the river. Everybody sat out and had drinks.  That’s when I discovered the foreign services people hung out there.  I ordered a Tom Collins.  They said John. And it was the same. That was the first time I had mangos. They opened them and they pressed up and cut them into squares. I thought it was very elegant. The foreign service guys were glad to meet an American girl who had traveled the world. I definitely quality for the Explorers Club.

What has all the travel taught you?

Not to let the small things get me down.

Appreciate the small things, I thought.

The beauty of the mangos.

The statue of the men peeing in front of the Kakfa Museum.

The girls started rattling off some of their favorite travel, Galacia in Spain, that magic view, The Isle of Sur La Sorge, Ireland, Sicily together.

Bordeaux when all the birds flew up in the air, out of the bamboo forest behind the house, noted Caroline. I’ll never forget the first time I tasted that hot thick chocolate in Spain.  I couldn’t believe something that good existed.

The little one followed noting Isle of Sur La Sorge and the pool, Agrigento, Sicily with the pool, peacocks and the view of the valley of the temples, Bordeaux, the food in Burgos, and the Sissi Museum in Vienna

O Cebreiro in Galacia on the top of the Mountain noted the teenager… that magic view of the window.

I was so tired walking up there that I was talking with the trees and they were talking back.

Ireland.

And the hotel in Lisbon after our 2016 trip, where the kids never left.

It’s a lifetime of stories and journeys that have taken us to this place where we are now together, in Agripoli where we are staying right now.

Hopefully we’ve all become citizens of the world.

Caroline commented,

“I feel like I’ve seen a lot of Italy. There have been really special and surprising places along the way. I recommend to anyone who hasn’t been south of Rome to go. Naples is a must. If you get the hankering to see Paestum then visit Agropoli and stay at La Colombaia Hotel. Stay here and forget yourself for awhile.”

Three days to go.

There we are. We finally made it to Agropoli for dinner at La Colombaia Hotel.