Italy, Arcona for Urbino 26th October 2025

We disembarked at he busy port of Ancona from where we head inland to the UNESCO city of Urbino, birthplace of the artist Raphael, with a historic centre that appears little changed since the 15th century when it became a centre of culture attracting artists and scholars from all over Italy. See the Duomo, the house where Raphael was born in 1483 and which is now a museum, as well as the impressive Palazzo Ducale, built under Federico da Montefeltro, where we find the National Gallery of Marche containing a stunning collection of Renaissance art. After our visit we enjoy a local lunch in Urbino before returning to the MS Monet.

Italy, Ortona for Chieti 25th October 2025

Chioti city, Abruzzi region, central Italy, on a hill overlooking the Pescara River south of

Pescara. It originated as Teate, chief town of the Marrucini (an ancient itallic tribe), and was taken by the Romans in 305 BC. Destroyed by the barbarians and rebuilt by Theodoric the Ostrogoth king in the 6th century, it was successively a Lombard stronghold, possession of the Hohenstaufen, the Angevin dynasty (house of Anjou) the house of Aragon, and a Norman County and the Caracciolo. Its ancient name was applied to the religious order of the Theatines founded in 1524 to combat Lutheranism and to reform morality. Roman monuments include the ruins of a theatre and of three small temples and the octagonal Church of Santa Maria del Tricalle built on the site of the pagan temple of Diana Trivia. The 11th-century cathedral. frequently rebuilt has a Gothic bell tower (1335-1498). Chieti contains the National Museum of Archaeology the Institute of Art, a theological university, and a provincial library and picture gallery.

The city is divided into the old town on the hill and a rapidly developing industrial and commercial area (Chieti-Scalo) in the valley, where there are branches of several national industries including textile cellulose, sugar. wire and tobacco factories.

Cathedral 

The crypt in the cathedral.

Museum of Archaeology.

Iron age snow shoes.

This turtle was donated to the city to celebrate the creators wife.

Trabucco Fishing. According to some historians of Apulia, the trabucco in the region

were imported from Phoenicians. However, the earliest documented existence

in Gargano dates back to 18th century, during which Gargano fishermen during that period sparsely populated, devised an ingenious technique of fishing that wasn't subject to weather conditions in the area Trabucchi were built in the most prominent promontories jutting nets out to Sea through a system of monumental wooden arms The development of the trabucchi allowed fishing without being submitted to sea conditions using the morphology of the rocky coast of Gargano.

The trabucco is built with traditional wood Aleppo pine -the typical pine of Gargano and common throughout the South-Western Adriatic- because this material is widely available in the region, modeled, elastic, weatherproof and resistant to salt (trabucco must resist the strong winds of Provence usually blowing in these areas). Some trabucchi have been rebuilt in recent years thanks to public funds. However, since they lost their economic function in the past centuries when they were the main economical source of entire families of fishermen, trabucchi rose into the role of cultural and architectural symbols and tourist attraction.

The fishing technique, is quite effective and consists of intercepting wide nets to catch the flows of fish moving along the ravines of the coast. Trabucchi are located where the sea is deep enough (at least 6 meters), and are built on rocky peaks generaly oriented southeast or north in order to exploit the favourable marine current. The net is lowered into the water through a complex system of winches and, likewise, promptly pulled up to retrieve its catch. At least two men are entrusted with the tough task of operating the winches that maneuver the giant net. Small trabucchi of Abruzzo and Molise Coast are electrically powered. The trabucco is managed at least by four fishermen called "trabuccolanti" who share the duties of watching the fish and maneuvering.

Ortona town. Abruzzi region central Italy, on a promontory 230 feet (70 m) above sea level,(18 km) southeast of Pescara. An ancient settlement, it was placed by the 1st-century-BC Greek geographer Strabo and the 1st-century-AD Roman scholar Pliny the Elder in the territory of the Frentani, a clan that allied itself with Rome in the 4th century BC. Ortona later became a Roman municipality It was severely damaged by earthquakes on several occasions. In the 18th century it was annexed to the Kingdom of Naples and was absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy. Landmarks include the town's cathedral, rebuilt after damage in the second world war and the Aragonese Castle built in 1452.

Italy reminds me of Zoe, the best chef I know. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant packed so clearly the food was excellent. I did not take pictures of the first 2 courses. Every course was accompanied by wine.

Followed by limonchelo or an italian liquor made from root, Genziana (gentian root liqueur) and various Amaro bitters. Made from the roots of the gentian plant. 

Can be produced by steeping the roots in wine (often with distillation) or by steeping them in alcohol. Michael had the limonchelo and I tried their Genziana.

Italy, Manopoli for Alberobello 24 October 2025

Alberobello is a town in Italy’s Apulia region. It’s known for its trulli, whitewashed stone huts with conical roofs. The hilltop Rione Monti district has hundreds of them. The 18th-century Trullo Sovrano is a 2-level trulli.

Monopoli the Port town.

First house of the town.

Map and symbol narration of the symbols found on rhe roof.

Drove on the coach to Alberobello where we saw the white washed houses with  black pointy roof made out of what looked like slates. Legend goes that the king imposed taxes based on the roof so when tax collecter arrived all the rooftops were dismantled and so noo taxes were ever paid.

Siamese truli symbolising 2 brothers that loved the same woman.

White washing the buildings helped to stop the black plague in the area as the wash has anti bacteria properties. The thick 1.5m walls and few, small windows maintains the inside cool in summer and warm in winter.

St. Antony's Church is a greek cross shaped church built on the toponym of "Rione Monti's" district, unique of his kind because it's entirely made by trulli. The construction is recent, it was built in 1927. The contrast between the new and "improved" northern side of the city and the "poorer" southern side, entirely made of trulli, was once really strong. To avoid the "discomfort" of the southern citizens to follow the Mass into a distant and "bourgeois" church, the local parish took the initiative to build a new church for the poor district of the town. In fact, in that district, since the declaration of the area as National Monument in 1910, it was forbidden to build any other kind of buildings in except trulli, so it was considered the poor neighborhood of the town. During the years between II World War and the '80's, the common idea of the trullo as a symbol of poverty and backwardness became null and void. Hundreds of trulli located outside the protected areas were destroyed, to be replaced be "modern" buildings. Entire blocks around the St. Medics church end in the north-eastern side of the town, once entirely made of trulli have been destroyed.

The Ship Monet, 24th October 2025

The Cabin, relatively cosy but not as small as Hurtigruten.

Dining room.

Front of the ship (bow) with the jacuzzi.

Sitting room.

Entrance to the sitting room.

The stairs.

Narrow passages and our next door neighbour is the technical second officer.

Outside sitting area where I do DailyJ each morning. Four days so far, today I did not wake up to the watch vibrating on my arm. Its not been easy with the ship rolling side to side or up and down depending on the tide and wind.

Back side (stern) of the Monet

Italy, Otranto for Lecce 23rd October 2025

Last night the Monet crossed the Adriatic from Albania into Italy,  docking in Otranto. Soon after breakfast we boarded the bus for Lecce, a small old town in Italy.

While driving to Lecce we passed loads of dead olive groves, dead as the result of a bacteria from a city in South America which destroyed 20 million out of 60 million trees.

The Italians have found a new cultivar that they have started planting as it is resistant to this bacteria.

First of all, Lecce is a beautiful  place. Baroque architecture is literally everywhere.

This balcony is skew because this family was Orthodox, had renunciated Catholicism so also had a scorpion in their coat of arms.

There is nothing to do in Lecce and people happily stroll around all day with no purpose. In the mornings and afternoons, they leisurely sit outside in the city’s many cafes, scattered around a maze of little alleys and squares, and sip a strange sort of iced coffee sweetened with almond syrup. 

In the evenings, they again find their way to the bars and cafes this time for an “aperitivo”, an Italian pre-dinner snack which includes a drink (usually alcoholic) and lots of little treats to nibble on.

I tried their local “pasticciotto” which is a shortcrust pastry jewel box filled with custard… always served warm.

Lecce is without any doubt the most beautiful city in Southern Italy. Its historic core is a glorious and well-preserved collection of opulent Baroque and Rococo architecture that is a visual delight.

Lecce’s center was once almost totally abandoned, but in the last 20 years the regional government spent millions of euros cleaning it up and restoring it.

Lecce's lesser known Roman amphitheater surrounded by buildings and trees in the historic center.

One can walk to Rome from here via this Pilgrimage route.

But above all, Lecce is a place for Papier Mâché! A craft that is so quintessentially baroque, Papier Mâché is everywhere in Lecce. You’ll see it on shrines, statues in churches, and even the ceiling.