Europe 2023 – it’s a wrap !

Day 81 - Home safe and sound.

We arrived home at Adelaide Airport at 10:10 Monday night, our friend Tom was there to collect us and drive us home. We eventually got to bed around midnight after 26 hours or so travelling, 3 plane flights and too much airplane food ! Reflecting on our trip, we saw so much and travelled quite a few kilometres. People ask where was our favourite location ? What were the top 3 surprise discoveries ? Where would you want to go back to ? etc. etc. We'll attempt to answer those questions and a few more.

Where was our favourite location ?

After seeing so much and visiting many regions, towns and cities .. this is a hard one to answer. We wished we had spent more time on the Peloponese Peninsula in Greece, but we really enjoyed Sicily as a region. So winner is: Sicily !

What were the top 3 surprise discoveries ?

This is hard one, but we decided on the following ... we discounted Athens and Naples because they are regular tourist destinations and really weren't 'discoveries', even though there were surprises for us in each of these locations.

Domus Romane Valentini Palazzo - Rome

So very different in presentation, not just looking at ruins and trying to imagine how it was at its peak, but this tour used multimedia presentaions and projections to re-create how it actually looked over the existing ruins bringing it to life. So Good !

Alberobello

Again, a very different aspect to life in Italy during the medieval period, remembering that Italy wasn't unified until the late nineteenth century, the Italian peninsula was fragmented into several kingdoms, duchies, and city-states. All with very different histories and life styles. The trulli houses of the Itrea Valley region were initially worker's houses, shelter for animals and storage rooms in the fields. Today they are revitalised as shops and accommodation in Alberobello.

Metora

The landscape is so different at Metora, and the monastries that sit atop the sheer cliff top mountains are just something you'd not see elsewhere.

Matera - ok we couldn't limit to just 3 !

Matera is unique in the history of its development and is listed as the oldest city in Europe that has been continuously occupied, since Neanderthal times. Developed from cave houses, which in turn were used as foundations for a medieval city to be built, and then a modern city built up in conjunction with the Sassi in a spectacular setting alongside 2 ravines.

Where would we want to return and explore further ?

Pelopenese Peninsula in Greece, as we feel we didn't spend enough time there and had pre-booked a plane flight from Athens to Rome that we had to get back for !

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