Today was all about chilling out, unwinding, and recharging.
It was a wonderfully warm day in Monopoli—perfect for exploring a little and then hitting the beach.
We grabbed lunch at the other café at the end of our street—this one focused mainly on fried calamari and octopus paninis (what could be better?).
We ordered some calamari, fries, a few octopus paninis, and some drinks. An amazing lunch.
By the afternoon, a breeze had come up. Rain is expected tomorrow. We still wanted some beach time, however, and didn’t let the breeze stop us—although it did change the previously mirror-like sea into a bit more of a choppy affair.
Swim done, we headed home and decided to stay in for dinner and cook the orecchiette we purchased from the Nonna in Bari.
We started preparing the sauce—no oil! We needed oil!
A and I decided to do a quick dash to the local shop in the old town. We were sure we could get some oil there.
Quickly weaving our way through the streets of the old town, we arrived at the small shop only to find it was closed… Next option—keep walking…
Weaving down more streets in search of oil, we came across a tourist shop… small and expensive 😱.
We pushed on, continuing our search for oil. We headed up to the edge of the old town where we had seen a small fruit and vegetable shop. We were in luck—sort of. They had good local oil, but it was 5 euros for about 200 ml 😱🫣😬
Done.
While I’m certain we could have found it much cheaper elsewhere, how far and how long were we going to look?
We headed back to the apartment with our precious oil and started cooking the sauce.
The pasta was delicious (thanks to our oil).
After dinner, we went out for a walk through the old town and found a nice little gelato shop. Can’t go a day without gelato!
