Where on earth do we start here… Italian Airways flight from Florence to Bari (transmitting in Rome). A couple of months ago, our flight Florence to Rome was moved from 11am to 6am – that would see us spending +6hrs in Rome airport. So, the one of Euro debut moved the flights to later in the day. Perfect.

Boarding the plane in Florence and sitting down, our knees hit the chair in front. Actually no, the smashed into the chair in front. The sneaky buggers have pushed all economy seats closer together to get an extra row. Incredibly uncomfortable!

So then we land in Bari. As we walk toward the luggage pick up carousel, we see to our left, a long line of people in front of the Lost Luggage counter and at least 20-30 pieces of luggage that were unclaimed. Our conveyer belt started moving and luggage was being delivered. After about a dozen pieces were released, there was 10 minutes of nothing. We were told by another passenger that no more bags were on our plane. And that the bags that were on our plane, didn’t even belong to anyone on our flight. Italian Airways didn’t put any luggage for any passengers on our flight, onto our plane. And so the passionate, pissed off Italian arguing began. Not by us… by the Italian passengers.

It was absolutely chaotic! Police had to stand by to ensure everything remained somewhat in order as the rest of us lined up for over an hour to make a lost luggage claim. We were told that we might see our luggage the following day and that is was likely in Rome. All unsettling news with no guarantees for the Ionian Idiots. The only thing to do was to get a taxi to our accommodation in Polignano a Mare and buy tourist t-shirts to ensure we at least had something to wear for the next day. (Keep in mind that it is very hot over here so everything gets sweaty very quickly!)

A beach morning followed by a phone call that the bags had been found and that we could collect them that day from the airport or wait for them to be couriered to us the following day. We drove to the airport.

The following days entailed swimming, sun baking, drinking on the rooftop of our Airbnb, a visit to Ostuni and a reservation at a restaurant called Orto.

We did a tasting menu at Orto; all fresh ingredients prepared by the chef and most grown from the local area. Phenomenal experience and one to remember as our last night in Puglia.