On the road...for a LONG time...

On the day we had to leave Vieste (December 26), the weather was stormy and windy.  For us, this was a stroke of good luck!  Who cares if it's raining as long as we are just in the car?
Here's the view of Vieste as we were leaving on this stormy day.

MONTE SANT'ANGELO

On the way off the Gargano Promontory and down to Alberobello, we decided to stop at Monte Sant'Angelo, which is a mountain-top town and the home of the Santuario San Michele Arcangelo.  This church is unique in that it is one of the few churches dedicated to the Archangel Michael, and also that it is literally built inside a cave. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the church, but I stole one from the internet so you can see what I mean.

                                                                  Source: www.ilturismoculturale.it
There are little side caves off to the left. When we were there, they had a big presepe (Nativity) set up in one of the side grottoes with electric lights. It was really beautiful, and recreated the scenes of the Nativity with the theme of the local culture and scenery.  This church was unlike ANY church we had ever seen (or probably ever will see!).  The legend is that the Archangel Michael appeared several times (once with flames and a big sword) to different people on this mountain, and specifically requested that a Christian church be built in this grotto.They obliged him.

We ate lunch afterwards in a nice little restaurant, packed up our stuff and drove the 3 hours down to Alberobello...in the rain! We arrived in the evening to a beautiful little trullo, warm and cosy, and fell asleep.

OOPS!!!!!  OH NO!!!!!! followed by PHEW!!!!!

The next day (December 27) we woke up in our CUTE and WARM little trullo (pictures to come in the next post) and packed up for a beautiful day of exploring Alberobello, looked around for our new camera and realized (with horror!) that we had left it back at the restaurant in Monte Sant'Angelo!  A 3.5 hour drive away!  We called the restaurant, and thankfully, they had it.  (Phew!!!!)  They wanted to mail it to our home, but we wanted it for the rest of our journey, which had barely begun, so we begrudgingly got back into the car and wasted a whole day driving back up to get it.  Ugh!  Needless to say, we were very attentive as to the whereabouts of the camera after this experience. Maybe even more so than our own children!  So, we lost a day exploring the area, which, it turned out, was a shame because there is tons to see and do there. Oh, well, now we have an excuse to go back!