Amalfi Coast of the South

Ciao a tutti amici,

Yesterday my friend Jeff from Ohio http://jeffinitaly.com/ who lives in Brindisi a town about 45 minutes north, and his italian girlfriend Alberta came to Otranto. Jeff is the first American I have seen since arriving in Europe. yall are missing the boat. Jeff and Alberta took my roomate Agnes and I on a tour of the coast south of Otranto. This is the first time I have had a chance to see anything out of walking distance of Otranto since my arrival. We had a great time. First we stopped at the local abandoned bauxite mine. It was amazingly beautiful for a scar cut into the surface of the earth. The soil was a very bright red and the erosion in the surrounding slopes was extensive. The beauty was in the healing process. The hole dug had turned into a nice lake. This is the first lake i have seen anywhere in Italy. Then the flowers that were blooming in great abundance on the slopes, made the whole place appear to be one big floral arrangement. many flowers i have never seen before. wow. then we drove for several hours along the coast stopping in several breathtaking spots to take pictures. Jeff kept refferring to this part of the coast as the Amalfi of the south. I think it was even more beautiful than the Amalfi coast mainly because it is sparsley inhabited... very wild and mostly untarnished by development.
Unlike the amalfi which is wall to wall villages. I had a great time with Jeff, Alberta and Agnes. They are fun fun funny people. I laughed and laughed at them while gasping and gasping over the beauty of the landscapes.

next week i will be getting a laptop from Enzo and i should finally be able to post a few of my pictures. I will probably try to put a couple dozen in my photobucket gallery and put up a link to them here. i cannot imagine trying to pick one or two favorites from the 500 i have taken so far to share with you all here.


Well, I do not know what i did, but Antonio (my date, remember?) has been avoiding me lol.

Mi dispiace, senza sapere basta la cultura qui, ay ay. (I'm sorry, I don't have enough knowledge of the culture here, ay ay.) He followed me around like a stray dog the first 10 days i was here. He asked me out 3 times and i said... no. no. no. he is such a beautiful man. like a young Richard Gere but even foxier. i was feeling very lonely and so i agreed the 4th time he asked. we went for drinks and a walk at the port. we had a great time because he knew a little english and i a little italian. it was fun fun finding the middle ground and we laughed and laughed. maybe i offended him when i did not ask him to go home with me. or maybe it was the fact i did not offer him my phone number. oh wait... maybe it was because i picked up all the trash around his car and piled it into the floor in the front seat... and asked him to throw it into the dumpster for me lol lol. anyway i saw him yesterday for the first time since our date. our eyes met for a split second across the park and poof! he disappeared... into thin air... like magic! i blinked and he was gone. i could see no way he could have walked away... or have hidden behind something.

HEY WAIT A MINUTE. maybe he was that fox! oh well it's no big deal to me. but i cant help but hear that song when i think of him. "I'm just a giggolo and everybody knows. people know the cards i'm playing..." it was fun. maybe if i go on another date... i will not pick up the trash hehehehe.

Speaking of stray dogs, i have a favorite now. A large female german shepard cross that lives in the park. she is very cute with these big sad brown eyes. i have been taking all my scraps to her and now she greets me with much affection.

enough for now... love you all, buona sera