The Italian Coast

A few years ago when friends of my parents told me that their sailboat was docked in Brindisi, I had to get out a map of Italy to find it. Brindisi is a little port town on the “heel” part of the boot that is Italy, and it is quite charming. It is much bigger than other ports visited on this trip.

When we docked, we had no planned activity for ourselves. Much like the rest of the trip, we figured we would get out, walk around and go back to the ship. In towns that are too far to walk to from the port to the center of town, Seabourn provides a shuttle service. On the shuttle bus, they had a map of the town, complete with walking tour. Aha! A good activity for the day.

The walking tour led us to several landmarks, statues and churches and gave us a good overall feel for the town. There was a sailing race starting that day, so early in the day we saw many boats getting ready for the race. As this is Italy, “getting ready” meant “drinking prosecco” or “eating a sandwich”. Either way, it was quite a sight to see the entire harbor filled with sailboats.

We decided, upon finishing the walking tour and having lunch ashore, to take the boat, which is really just a commuter vessel, across the water to the monument that is shaped like a whale, or so they say. I think that requires a bit of imagination. Once across the water, we had a lovely walk and view of the monument from the outside, as it was closed that day. It’s a good thing we had no plans, so we could not be too disappointed.

One thing to note: unlike Bologna or Venice, we did not encounter one person getting in your face trying to sell socks or some other crap.