We had the privilege of hosting Nick and his family here in Bari over the past 10 days or so. One of the hardest things about serving as senior missionaries is leaving family behind, so being able to host them here in Italy was very sweet. Nick was pretty brave to bring the three kids across the pond and luckily he wasn't alone in doing so. He was accompanied by his girlfriend Mandy, who we were able to meet for the first time. They've been dating for several months, and she's an amazing person and gets along very well with Nick's kids.
Their flights over went very well, but then the challenges started once they landed in Rome. The car seats they had checked on the flight weren't delivered with the rest of the luggage but instead went to the oversize area--and it took about an hour (including talking with Delta) before that was figured out. Next, our pre-paid car rental was denied when I forgot to bring along my credit card. This left us scrambling to book a different rental at about 5-times the cost of the original! In the end, we were grateful to get a car, even at that price. By then, it was getting late into the afternoon and Rome traffic on the GRA (Grande Raccordo Annulare or Ring Road) was stop-and-go. It took us until nearly midnight to finally get home to Bari but it was sure sweet for us to get home and to actually have them with us!
The next day (May 31) we took it easy on them all to allow them to recover from the long flights and work through the jet lag. That afternoon we all walked over to Bari Vecchia (Old Bari) where we fed them a local original, focaccia bread.
On Thursday, we drove to Alberobello, a town famous for their trulli, or stone houses that look like troll houses. After wandering around for an hour or so, we loaded up and headed over to the coast to Monopoli, where we got our first chance to play and swim in the sea. Monopoli is an old city with a small beach, and the kids loved it. Afterwards, we returned home to get ready for the next day.
Friday took us to Polignano a Mare, a quaint town perched atop cliffs overlooking a beautiful blue Adriatic Sea. Friday was Republic Day so the crowds at the tiny, rocky beach below Polignano was super crowded. But the kids were not deterred and we ended up spending a few hours jostling for a bit of space. Afterward, Liz and I took the train home with the kids while Nick and Mandy drove home.
Saturday was a beach reprieve that took us to Gargano National Park, which forms the bump on the back calf of the Italian boot. Our goal was Monte Sant'Angelo, a quaint town high up the mountain and overlooking the sea below. There is a fantastic castle there that has some fun passages and a dungeon, so we thought that the kids would like it, and indeed they did. Also a hit was the Santuario di San Michele Archangelo, a church built into a cave underground.
Sunday after church, we headed south to Salento, the very bottom of the heel of Italy, where the best beaches in Italy are found. The area is also called the Maldives of Salento, because of their fine sand beaches. We had rented a beach house just south of Gallipoli (not of WWI fame--that Gallipoli is in Turkey). The next two days were spent playing in the beautiful blue waters of the Ionian Sea in the Gulf of Taranto. We kept the kids well slathered in sunscreen and the only notable sunburn was on the tops of my feet which I have overlooked with the sunscreen. Luckily, I've since recovered.
Tuesday, we headed back to Bari to clean up and get ready for the last few days of our travels with Nick and family. Wednesday, Nick, Mandy and Jacobi headed our early so they could stop in Pompeii on their way to Rome. They had a great time and Jacobi loved it. We left a few hours later and headed straight into Rome with Elladee and Jericho. The drive from Bari to Rome is beautiful as it heads up the East Coast through olive groves, before turning west over the Apennine Mountains where you find many hilltop towns and wind turbines. Once across the mountains, you head north before finally reaching the outskirts of Rome. It's a beautiful drive, but at five hours, it is a bit long. Once in Rome, we checked into our AirBnB to get ready for our last full day together.
Thursday in Rome was nice. Our first stop was the bone church (Capuchin Crypt) that Jacobi really wanted to see. He has a post card of the crypt and was fascinated by it. Next stop was the Pantheon where we recreated a picture taken of Jacobi six years earlier on his first trip to Italy. Next was lunch at a street cafe then to the Spanish Steps on our way to the Borghese Gardens where we rented a four-wheeled pedal bike. Jericho loved the pedal bike and all that evening and next morning begged us for "more bike".
Friday we took Nick and his family to our absolute favorite site in Rome, the Rome Temple, on our way to the airport. We love the beautiful gardens and the peaceful spirit that is always found at the temple. Afterward, we headed to the airport and a teary goodbye to our beautiful grandkids. Our long trip back home was a bit lonely, and it was hard to walk back into our apartment here in Bari and not have them here to greet us. Ah, but such is senior missionary life.
We don't spend a lot of time talking about the beautiful places here in Italy, but try to focus more on our work and the people here we work with. We love being here in Italy working primarily with the young, single adults, and find it is primarily ministering to the one. Here in Puglia (the region of Italy where we live and work), the YSA's are spread far apart. We work primarily in Bari and Taranto, though we also minister to those from Foggia (two hours north) to Brindisi and Lecce (two hours south) and to as far as Crotone, Cosenza and Catanzaro in Calabria (about five hours south). We also love working with the young missionaries here in the Puglia Zone. They are such an inspiration to us. They work hard and we love doing what we can to help them in this great work. We're also surprised at how fast our time here seems to be going. We've now been out on our mission five months, which hardly seems possible.
Luke & Liz
