We had a good 3hour drive back to Roccamandolfi from Alberobello via the lovely historic town of Monopoli and the seaside town of Polignano al Mare. We saw thousands of acres of olive trees again from there to Roccamandolfi where we were greeted with torrential rain again.
We met Giulia and Liberato for dinner at a nice little pizzeria in town and luckily the next morning was fine and sunny.
We took a picnic up to the “campitello di Rocca” and while we were having our lunch two shepherds and their four dogs brought a large flock of sheep and a smaller flock of goats to graze. It was funny to see them all around the campervan and the dogs were very interested in us.
We came back to Joe’s house where I cooked a chicken dish and caponata for dinner and we left early the next morning to take the camper back to my cousin’s place and we then caught the train to Rome.
At the main train station the girls caught a taxi (15mins) to the lovely “Nik Nik” B and B and we caught the metro to the Australian Embassy where I picked up my new passport.
That evening we stopped by a bar and had an aperitive and then walked up to the “Taverna Latina” a couple of streets away where we had a delicious meal.
Francoise and I set off for Castel Sant’Angelo and caught the underground to the main station. There we attempted to get a bus but nothing was happening and we eventually found out that there was a demonstration and that the bus was departing from another point so we walked further on and got a bus after a few minutes.
When we got to Castel Sant’Angelo there was a sign on the door – “closed until 12.30 because of a union meeting” so we waited over 1/2 hour and were the first in the door.
From there we wanted to catch a bus back to the central station but again there was a demonstration and we waited about an hour for the bus. It was getting late so we caught a taxi from the central station to our B and B, showered and then all set off
again by taxi back to the central station where we met up with my cousin Julius (who had arrived in Rome the previous day from Australia to do some gigs in Italy) and we farewelled our camper buddies Helen and Francoise (who were flying back to Australia).
We went to my aunt’s place with Julius for dinner and then headed back to our B and B for some rest before taking the train the next morning back to Sezze and our camper.