However, the Pope's death made travel around Rome difficult, and we didn't want to find ourselves stuck in the Rome area and unable to get transportation where and when we needed it. In addition, when searching for hostels we'd found nothing ideal in Bari, but we had located one very nice sounding place in Brindisi, just an hour and a half further south by train.
So instead we used the train system to work our way to a town due west of Firenze named Ancona on the coast of Eastern Italy. From there we took a regional train all the way down the 'shin' to Bari, and then, at 11:20PM we hopped the last train out of Bari to Brindisi. We arrived there at 0:40 on the morning of the 6th and an enterprising taxi driver picked us up. "Hostel?" he queried. We looked at him and at each other. "Sure. Yes. Great!"
When we reached the Hostel and had handed the driver €5, our burly, bald, kindhearted and welcoming host Morizzo led us inside with a slight chastisement "You should have called me!" He said in perfect English, gesturing to the bright blue and yellow hostel van parked by the doorway "I would have come and gotten you for free!"
We thanked him and explained that we had forgotten to write down his number, and in any case we appreciated the kindness. He introduced us to the hostels two very sweet dogs, Duke and Orsa, and led us inside.
"We haven't got any more girls dorm beds, and we won't put you in with the guys. Is a private with two twins ok? It's €19 instead of €14."
80 and I nodded emphatically, the length of the day finally catching up with us. "It sounds lovely. Thanks."
We left our passports with Morizzo and the girl at the desk showed us to our huge and spacious room. We dropped our bags, climbed into our beds, and collapsed, exhausted.
The next morning we awoke and showered, then repacked our things and headed downstairs. The girl from the previous evening offered us what little was available for breakfast, snack cakes and coffee, and queried us on our plans for the day. After learning we where going to try and day trip to Lecce before heading north to Bari and the ferry she explained "Oh, Morizzo is taking a bunch of people into the port soon, so you can catch a ride to the train station."
We welcomed this and collected our passports then jumped in the bus with 8 or so other travelers headed for the ports and the trains. We toured Lecce for the rest of the morning until early afternoon, stopped to acquire pastries, shoe-shop, and enjoy the eclectic architecture of the small city. It was a pleasant place and we even made a few purchases that sweetened the visit nicely. While there I snapped this photo of a local produce truck.
Fresh Produce.
We caught a train out of Lecce that landed us back in Brindisi at 14:15, and we hoped to catch one of two trains to Bari. The first was at 14:45 and the second was at 15:12. We knew that it had been tough to get everyone out the door that morning (it had delayed us so much we'd considered walking what we thought to be the short distance to the train station) and so we hoped to arrive with plenty of time to walk to the hostel, grab our bags and ask for a ride back to the station. Since our ferry left at 20:00, that would give us plenty of time, but delay of over an hour between the 15:12 and the next train for Bari meant that if we missed that train we'd be in trouble.
At 14:45, when we finally arrived back at the Hostel we were slightly more concerned about the time, and quickly snatched our bags and filled our water bottles.
I approached Morizzo, sitting at the long table in the common room and watching the European equivalent of a Discovery Channel special on bridges. "Hey Morizzo. Do you think you could work a miracle for me?"
Morizzo looked up and his eyes clouded with a mixture of curiosity and hesitation "What is it?"
"We've got a train we're trying to catch that leaves at 15:12 and we need a ride to the station. Do you think it can be done?"
His eyes snapped to his watch, and he looked back at me. "I think so. Are your bags ready?"
"We're going to put them in the van right now." I responded.
One of his assistants jumped in the passenger seat and less than 90 seconds later we were out the front gate and rumbling towards what passes for downtown in the sleepy port of Brindisi.
When we arrived at the station at 15:02, Morizzo glanced at his watch again and smiled. "There you go. Only a 12 minute drive." His eyes said "How is that for a miracle?"
I grinned and shook his hand. "Thank you, Morizzo. Two more like that and I will nominate you for sainthood."
We grabbed our bags and 10 minutes later we were being whisked back up the Italian coast, towards Bari, and soon Greece.
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