Watch Out Southern Italy, Here I Come!

Oops, I should probably have posted here before now. By this point, everything is pretty much official. I've put down a deposit on a tour, booked 2 other hotels, and got travel insurance worked out. I'm going to southern italy for 3 weeks in May 2011!!!

Here is the plan:

Rome - 6 nights
Sorrento - 4 nights
Naples - 3 nights
Lecce - 2 nights
Puglia tour with Experience Puglia - 6 nights.





Although I am a big big proponent for doing a trip yourself and not taking a guided tour, I am making an exception for Puglia. it's not very touristy. English is not as widely-spoken, it is a very unique sub-culture, public transportation is not quite as reliable in the more "famous" part of Italy, and this tour came extremely highly-recommended. Also it's not a group tour. It'll just be me. so if I get bored in a museum, we can leave. If I want to duck into a shop or grab a gelato, I presume i will be able. It includes literally everything, so while expensive, it will be nice to have nothing to worry about for 6 whole days. As luck would also have it, the tour's only availability in that general timeframe coincides with the guide's town's patron saint day, running for 3 evenings. Needless to say, I am beyond excited at the prospect of experiencing a small Southern Italian town's patron saint day. I could get used to 6 nights in this tiny untouristed town.

This trip, like last year's, will be all about the food. I am finally going to take a cooking class in Rome, i think. And i've already started writing down the lists of all of the pizza places to try in Naples. I'll have, I think, five meals there. Think I can't eat 5 pizze in 3 days? I bet I can. Lecce apparently is quite famous for coffee, gelato, and pastry, so I think i'll be able to get by. Puglia in general is often said to have the best food in Italy, and I can't wait. The tour includes visits to wineries, an oil frantoio, and a traditional bakery (A lot of the wheat in Italy is grown in and near Puglia, so the bread and pasta is big there)

As an aside, while reading the foodie-centric Chowhound Italy board, I was led to this Rome-based food writer's blog, Parla Food. It is, in a word, amazing, and I can't wait to try all of the places she recommends because apparently, she knows the best. Except that she likes offal. Sorry, I draw the line there. But anyway, I spent the better part of yesterday reading literally every entry about Italy she has on there, saving many restaurant names.

Now I just have to pick up the Rosetta Stone lessons and hope the price of airfare drops a bit....