…spending lazy days at the beach, nibbling on fresh (really fresh) almonds from a beach vendor, wondering how I managed to live this long thinking I actually knew what almonds were supposed to taste and feel like…

…nibbling on olives and sipping very cold local white wine on my patio while looking at the strange plant that lives here…

…dancing tango under the stars at night (not pictured)…

As Cherrye has mentioned in a previous post, there are always telltale signs that ensure you that yes, it’s spring and summer is just around the corner!  Here are my telltale signs for a Lecce spring…

The Swallows.  They say one swallow does not make a spring, and I think I can safely say it’s spring here.  Lecce is covered in swallows every day at dusk.  They swoop around in flocks and fly quite low.  I tend to stare at them in admiration, but it is almost reminiscent of a certain famous Alfred Hitchcock film.

The Mosquitoes.  I already got my first mosquito bite in April.  This is the Mediterranean, folks, and what we’ve got is warmth and humidity.  I’m already waking up to that funny high-pitched buzz in my ear, and my tango dancer legs are constantly covered in repellent to avoid unsightly bites.  And if it’s like this in May, what will it be like in the summer?

The Smells in the Air.  I’m discovering so many new flowers, as everything is in bloom and we’re in a place where we have several different winds.  The perfume changes depending on which wind is blowing.  The orange blossoms, the pitosforo (butterbush), and sometimes the smell of the sea.

What are your telltale signs of spring and summer?

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

…is walking through the historic center of Lecce in the middle of the night with a friend, opening pea pods and eating the sweet little peas right out of them, raw.  My friend has been gifted with peas and fava beans from someone’s garden.  We had gone for pizza prior, but were more excited about the fresh peas than our dinner.

“These aren’t too fresh, unfortunately,” says my friend.  “What do you mean? They seem pretty fresh to me,” I say.  “Well, yes.  They are, I suppose.  But they were picked this morning so not really that fresh.”  Welcome to Puglia.  Where fresh really means fresh.

The fun resumes Saturday, late morning, as we open all the pea pods and put the peas into a bowl, to cook later (though I’d be content to eat them raw, just pop them into my mouth like candy).  Some of the pods reveal fuzzy little worms, feasting on the green flesh of the peas.  “Buon appetito,”  I say to a worm as I throw the non-edible pea away.

I am now working through the fava beans, shelling them as a jazzy tango trio tickles my ears from the speakers in the living room.  I fantasize about eating the fava beans with pecorino, but I’m afraid my friend has other plans for them.  Either way, it will be delicious.

As you’ve probably been able to conclude, I’m in Lecce.  The Tramontana blew me here.

Tramontana is the name for the wind from the north that blows here in Puglia sometimes.  Since I arrived from a land in the “north” (okay, central Italy – but it’s all relative.  From here everything is north), and since I arrived suddenly, I like to think it was the wind that brought me.  It has a romantic feel to it, no?

The wind may not have literally blown me here but it sure feels like it.  A series of events brought me here, and I simply decided to go with the flow and follow all the signs.  A bit vague, I know, but it included a lot of music, a lot of tango and a free ride in a friend’s car.  I simply followed the current (as fighting it would get me nowhere) and here I am.  I have projects I’m very excited about in Lecce.  It’s all fine and dandy.

And here is what can happen when you follow the signs and go where the wind takes you.  This vals sums up my mood lately. 

I’ve gone back and forth about whether to write this or not.  I’m back in Lecce and exploring the Salento and getting the desire to experience more of the south.  I have so many amazing things to share with you all, but at the same time, I don’t want to tell anybody!  Like Cherrye says in her recent blog post, I feel like I’ve been let in on a little secret.

A secret that I’m just dying to share with someone because I can’t keep it inside, but then if I do tell, I will blush and wonder if I did the right thing.  I want everyone to experience this magical land, but I don’t want it to become the next Tuscany.  However, beauty really ought to be shared, no?

So let’s just say it.  Southern Italy is amazing and for the most part undiscovered by the tourist and expat masses.  It’s fascinating, it’s old, it’s warm, it’s beautiful.

My days in the Salento consist of work (tango, translating, writing), long lunches and the delight of trying to catch on to the local accent when Italian is spoken, as well as the playful words of the Leccese dialect, that are so new to me.  I have a secret dream of someday letting a local phrase roll off my tongue like it’s nothing.

I snack on taralli (see picture)  in the afternoons and I sip interesting wines made with grapes such as primitivo (the “grandfather” of zinfandel), negramaro, susumaniello…

The olive trees (which deliver the spiciest oil) are different.  As opposed to their dreamy silver Umbrian counterparts, the Salentino olive leaves seem to be a darker green.  This could be an illusion because of the light and the contrast with the red soil (red soil!), or maybe they really are darker. Fichi d’India (prickly pears) can be found everywhere, along the roads and by the sea.

Even the wind is exotic – sometimes a wind comes from Africa, known here as the Scirocco.  There’s something about it that wakes up the traveler in me.

I’m not one to gossip, but this secret is too good not to share!  I mean, all the years I’ve been coming to Italy and I never went south of Rome.  And here I am.  I must say, I highly recommend a visit to the south, but don’t tell anyone you heard it from me! Shhh!

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

I’m still in Lecce and will be on my way to Rome tomorrow.  Then Seattle for a week.

I have a lot of emotions to process right now.

I like this land.  A lot.  I haven’t felt such a “vibration” (for lack of a better word) since setting foot in Argentina.  The city of Lecce is adorable and very navigable for a girl without a car.  I’ve been giving tango lessons here and am enjoying developing a relationship with the milonguero school here.  My visit here has been full of all kinds of synchronicities that I just cannot ignore. I’ve made a wonderful friend here and it’s made me miss my girlfriends in Perugia.  I wish I could bring them all together.  I don’t know what I’ll do yet but the wheels are turning.

While I’ve been here I’ve received the very sad news that my wonderful grandmother, Teresa Ferrari, passed away.  She was 89 years old.  She was the matriarch of the family and everybody’s grandmother – everybody’s.  All the kids in her neighborhood called her “Grandma”.  I still remember 8 years ago sitting with my cousin in Perugia, talking about our grandfather’s death, which had happened a few years prior, and saying, “What are we going to do when it’s grandma’s turn?”  We couldn’t bear to think of it anymore.  Her presence has been that powerful in our lives.

She lived until the very last minute.  She was an artist.  She lived her last years in a beautiful condo in West Seattle, and you could see Vashon island from her balcony, which almost symbolized her being able to watch over her children who live there.   She walked everywhere.  She took her fitness class at the senior center.  She was hard to get a hold of because she had quite an impressive social calendar!   Wherever I’ve lived in the world, she has always sent me handmade cards for my birthday, Christmas, and just because.  I still have them all.

This video below was put together by my friend Alessandra Bray, and the song is by a group from this area called Bambini Latini.  The song is called “Rimani Come Sei” (stay the way you are, loosely translated), which is what my grandmother might say to me.  Most of the photographs are of the beautiful Salento and were taken by Silvestro Silvestori, who runs a cooking school in Lecce (more on that later).

It will be a bit of time before I can describe this trip in detail.  One thing I can say is that it’s needed.  The winter in Perugia has been gray, gray, gray.  It gets you down.  On top of that, I’ve been dealing with the disappointing sting of learning that a certain personal relationship was… not what I thought it was.  I’ve been processing  that for about a month.  On top of that, I’ve been worrying about my grandmother’s health, which fortunately seems to be doing well now.  On top of that, I’ve been just so incredibly busy (which is good, but exhausting!).

I stopped in Rome for a night before I came down here, and it was such a dream.  I went to a milonga organized by some people I met in Buenos Aires, and was pleasantly surprised to find all of those people, plus an Argentine I knew from my regular milonga in Buenos Aires.  Needless to say, I had some heavenly dances and made some wonderful connections.  I took the metro to get to the milonga and walked around the neighborhood where it is located.  It brought me to life.  I realized how much of a city girl I am.  You just can’t take Buenos Aires out of the girl!

Lecce has lifted my spirits.  I have met so many angels here who have gone out of their way to welcome me and make me feel good.  I have made a wonderful tango connection and gave a two-hour lesson to an amazing, sweet couple who lavished me with pastries, coffee, sweet wine and tangos sung by the beautiful voice of Tito Schipa, a tenor from Lecce.  Thanks to them, I have had requests from other dancers here asking for lessons.  It’s turning out to be an eventful week!

Everything seems to be made of the local Leccese stone.  The streets and architecture glow at night with the help of streetlights, and during the day when Lecce is bathed in sunlight it’s like standing in a city of gold.  It’s a really beautiful city.

A new friend brought me to Gallipoli today and it made my heart sing.  That beautiful ancient town on the Ionian Sea tickled my soul just right and made me feel light and refreshed.  It was so cloudy on the way there, but exactly over Gallipoli there was only clear blue sky.  It was a treat to walk along the water without a jacket, smelling the salty air.  We delightfully scooped out the “eggs” from the insides of ricci (sea urchins) with bread while looking at the horizon.  This burst of sun made me feel pretty good.

I’m positively in love with Gallipoli, but another new contact has offered to take me to Otranto.  I can hardly wait.

This has been a great experience for me because I’ve been able to get away and do something I’m good at: traveling.  It’s been a nice reminder that I’m independent.  I have gotten to know new people, I have tasted all kinds of interesting new foods, and I did it myself.

My heart is bursting with love for this area that is new to me, and I hope to keep it in my life.