Sorrento
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| Bay of Naples |
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| Hotel Grand Aminta |
We were
able to enjoy a relaxing Christmas day in Sorrento, Italy. Sorrento is a small town on
the west coast of Italy, about two and a half hours south of Rome! It was
fun seeing the popular tourist town decked out in Christmas attire and yet not
overrun by tourists. The town is famous for the many inlaid wood artisans
that work and live there. With temperatures around 50 degrees it was a
fun two-day stay in which we met many wonderful people.
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| Downtown Sorrento Christmas Eve |
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| Chapel in Taranto |
Taranto
We
dropped off mail in Taranto to the Elders and Sisters there and were able
to see our first stand-alone LDS chapel in Italy.
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| Duomo in Lecce |
Lecce
From
Taranto we went to Lecce, known for its baroque architectural style.
Many of the buildings and churches were built around the time of
Columbus! It was amazing to walk around the small alleyways,
which weren’t made with cars in mind! After seeing the Tyrrhenian Sea the
day before in Sorrento, we were able to see the Adriatic Sea on Italy’s east coast!
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| Amphitheatre in Lecce |
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| San Cataldo Beach near Lecce |
Even though the weather was cold and cloudy, we were able to drive to the beach at San Cataldo and see a rainbow while we were there!
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| Cattedrale di Brindisi |
Brindisi
Saturday
we made a brief stop in Brindisi, a fishing town on the Adriatic coast.
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| Ferry crossing to Albania - Greece |
Bari
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| Lungomare along Bari coast |
We
arrived at our hotel just south of Bari in the early afternoon. Greg’s
grandparents had served as missionaries in the town of Bari 42 years ago.
This was the reason we came south, to see some of the areas where they had
served. It proved to be a very attractive town with one of Italy’s
longest coastline promenades. It was easy to smell the freshly caught
fish as we walked by the fish markets.
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| Bari Seaport on Adriatic |
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| Downtown Bari at Sunset |
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| Piazza di San Nicolo |
In the evening we strolled through the streets of Bari's citta vecchia (old town) and enjoyed seeing the churches, nativity, and port all lit up with Christmas lights.
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| Nativity outside church |
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| Church interior |
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| Bari Port at night |
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| Antonio Petroni |
Sunday
we were able to visit the two wards that are now in Bari. They were meeting together in one of the churches there because of the Christmas
holiday and the Stake center was being repaired. What a treat! We met a
brother Antonio Petroni and a sister Modugno DeSantis, who both remembered Reed and Lillian
Andrew from their missionary days when there were around 20 members of the
church in Bari. Reed and Lillian would be happy to see two thriving wards in Bari today!
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| Modugno DeSantis Family |
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| Beautiful stand-alone Chapel in Bari |
