Our last day took us to the ruins of Egnazia, a 5th century port town where the stone tracks of the Appian Way, which once took travelers from Brindisi to Rome, remain. With thoughts of the ancients in my head, I traveled the 21st century coast road back to the hotel, extra slow through the village of Savelletri, and sure enough caught sight of a signora in a housecoat washing her steps. Just opposite her stood a statue of the Blessed Virgin, pure white against the blue Adriatic and sky. As it was May, the month of Mary, a wreath of flowers lay at her feet to honor her.
I said a silent Ave Maria, grateful for the maternal line that pulls me back to Italy again and again. And feeling strengthened by the days of cycling, the wind at my back, and most of all the connection I’d made to my ancestral home, I picked up speed, bordered by the sparkling sea on one side, and on the other old gnarled olive trees, bursting with buds of spring.
If You Go:
(800) 462-2848
Puglia Premiere Inn Tours take place in the Spring and Fall
Cost: $3,698
Italian Government Tourist Board
630 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10111
(212) 245-4822
(800) 223-5730
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Photo courtesy of author
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