Trani, Italy - Day 5 - July 3, 2011

We’re all finally getting caught up on sleep and mostly adjusting to the time difference. Right now it’s 9PM (or 21:00). I can’t connect to the internet, and haven’t been able to for many hours. Today we spent some time on the Trani beach, soaking in the sun and beautiful weather. Sarah, Catalina and I went into the sea, while Gaby chose to remain on the rocky beach, taking photos. The beach we plopped our “Americanos” butts down on was intimate, with just a few families and some couples, maybe a total of eight families. It was noticed, as we took the stairs down to the beach, that we were Americanos by some well-dressed Italians. Why they pointed us out, I do not know. Now here is what I saw: very thin men with medium-built women, reading and tanning; a group of two very darkly tanned Italian men with their very darkly tanned bigger boned Italian babes, sunning and playing ball in the water; a family facing away from the surf, toward the sun, eating under their umbrella while their small toddlers played on the rocks; a European family of women, a baby and a small boy, enjoying the water (one of the women looked to be the mama, quite rotund and wearing a bikini that was too small for her bulging boobs, belly and butt; and a set of young women bouncing in the water now and then.

Catalina, Gaby and a bit of Sarah on the beach at Trani. (Adriatic Sea)

Me, jumping in the water being goofy, and Catalina being embarrassed.

Me, Sarah swimming, Catalina being cold despite that the water was warm. Note boat in background. There were a few boats this day.

I don't think these folks are Italian, we all thought this little girl was adorable.

The woman with the bikini, though it's hard to tell.

Italians playing ball in the Sea.

On walking to the beach, we got a few horn beeps from men in their tiny cars. I’m 99.99% sure they were not beeping for me. On the way back, more car beeps. At that point Gaby decided to count all the car beeping. At one point we walked by an outdoor market where flowy clothing was being sold and the gentleman there yelled for us over and over again. We just turned, smiled and kept walking. Then he seemed a bit miffed at us for walking away.

Sarah with bat wings

On the way to the park.

Sarah at the park.

Sarah and Catalina had purchased some croissants and Gaby ate eggs for breakfast. I had prosciutto and bread. Later Sarah made a lovely chicken salad. Then we headed back out to investigate the old town. We ended up at the Park, where dozens of groups of men, groups of women, and groups of families stroll. We also purchased some amazing gelato – Gaby and I got limone (lemon) while Catalina got vanilla with chocolate chips and Sarah got vanilla. It was truly delicious. Gaby and I watched some turtles, bunnies and birds at the park. We chuckled that they had a mini aquarium, containing a few tanks of small fishes. It was a little interesting, but mostly curious. As we headed back to a bench where we had been sitting previously, I tried to videotape the strolling, but it wasn’t easy. It’s almost like people dispersed for a moment. Behind me, I heard the familiar peddling noise of a squeaky tricycle. 

Catalina at the park.

Gaby at the park, we had to borrow Eileen's shoes due to a shoe issue. Sorry Eileen.

On our stroll back through the older part of town, we took photos of the graffiti, noticing an inordinate amount of penises. The girls figured it was a theme for me and asked me to pose by the graffiti penises.

What is behind me? Not again.

Bella Sarah, next to a door...and yes, Sarah is tall and the door is small.

Gaby and Sarah (up ahead) - lots of interesting graffiti.

For dinner we purchased a Diablo pizza from the Ewings’ favorite pizza joint and then foccia from yet another pizza place. 

Unfortunately, the internet is still down. Strange, because the wireless is showing some activity, but no internet connection. We ate our dinner, I tried to put on Evita and effectively put everyone to sleep. Except me, I forced myself awake so that I can get ready for our early morning train to Roma.

Ah Roma. Another adventure waiting to happen.