Going home is getting real
The distance between the Glam Hotel Milano and the entrance to Milano Centrale is two hundred and sixty metres. I am wearing a most...
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Dougie
Jun 21, 20227 min read
North to Milano with a death-defying start
We bade farewell to Stephanie, the cats and the Trullo early. Joe drove us across the 'heel' to Taranto from where our train for Milano...
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Dougie
Jun 20, 20222 min read
Must all good things come to an end? For now ...
We begin our long journey back to Australia tomorrow -- north to Paris by train then two flights back to the big southern island. So here...
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Dougie
Jun 19, 20222 min read
Xylella fastidiosa -- killer bug
It is Sunday in southern Italy. The town is quiet. The beaches not far from here will already be crammed (even this early in summer)....
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Dougie
Jun 18, 20224 min read
Trulli ... everywhere you look you can see a Trullo (sorry, couldn't resist it)
Today we visited the Trulli town of Alberobello, about an hour's drive north of Francavilla Fontana. The town is a UNESCO World Heritage...
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Dougie
Jun 17, 20221 min read
Some days there is only one way to be ...
The chirping of cicadas in 70 year old olive trees is the only sound to disturb the peace. Do cicadas chirp? I am too hot to care. The...
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Dougie
Jun 15, 20221 min read
Ditch the ego. Just write.
You get up early on a day when the breeze has dropped and it's twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees by breakfast. And your brother asks...
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Dougie
Jun 14, 20222 min read
Not quite Route 66 -- coast to coast on Puglia's SS16
We drove from coast to coast across the 'heel' of the 'boot' that is mainland Italy. From the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. From...
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Dougie
Jun 13, 20223 min read
The curse that keeps on giving
The English writer Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797) is often credited with writing the first ever Gothic novel. His story, The Castle of...
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Dougie
Jun 11, 20221 min read
A kitten came looking for breakfast
I sat in the shade of a Trullo. A kitten came calling for breakfast. Then mum came. Then they came. Then later we wandered down long...
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Dougie
Jun 10, 20222 min read
A short and simple tale. Two brothers meet.
My younger brother provides my verifiable first memory. In a taxi. In the rain. In Aberdeen. I was -- what? -- three and a half years old...
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Dougie
Jun 9, 20227 min read
One door stays firmly shut. Another opens magnificently.
We headed north west today. Not far. Just over two kilometres. All of it -- more or less -- on the roads. It's Rome. My half baked plan...
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Dougie
Jun 8, 20225 min read
When in Rome, do as all tourists do. Get ruined.
My relationship with ancient Rome is marginal at best. We had a very tall history teacher in our third year at Secondary school. He was...
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