We set off early Sunday morning, the sun yet again shining, towards Ostuni, where we intended to spend the night. Whilst it was only a 70km ride, we thought we should push on through in order to make it there before nightfall. At about 11:30am however, a seemingly insurmountable craving for pasta came upon me and we decided to stop in Mesagne to grab a quick bite to eat. When we arrived in town, there were no trattorias jumping out at us so we asked one of the locals. He gave us what you would think we're seemingly clear directions but 10 minutes later we were on the other side of town and still no meal in sight.
This has been a recurring theme throughout the trip. None of the directions we ever get are clear, the signage is confusing at the best of times and often when you do seek directions an argument ensues amongst the locals as to which road we should take, how to get there, resulting in a mishmash of instructions that leave you no closer to your destination.
We asked another couple of girls at the corner how to get to this restaurant or any and no sooner than the words had spilled from our mouths had a committee formed upon the sidewalk about where we should eat. They debated what was open, argued over who had a better restaurant, and then one man called his friend and then sent us along our way. For the second time, we again got lost, and were seemingly further and further away from any prospect of nourishment .
As we turned down our last hope of a side street, a man flew out of a bar with a beer in his hand yelling Canada, Canada and waving for us to come in. A bit bizarre but then we figured perhaps this was the restaurant the man had called and they were signalling to us. It wasn't but what a fortunate mistake.
Antonio invited us to sit down outside the bar, the rest of the boys came out - Alex, Giancarlo, Vincenzo, Francesco- prosecco and beer were forced upon us before we even knew what was happening. No sooner had the first drinks been finished were two more upon us and the conversation was flowing and laughter echoing in the streets. Antonio told us to scrap the original restaurant and instead advised he would take us to his friend's restaurant. Our offers to pay for the drinks were refused - a gift for visiting and then Antonio whisked us away to lunch.
We turned the corner and came upon a nondescript Osteria. Antonio poked his head in the kitchen, the chef came out to meet us and was told to take good care of us. They were more than accommodating with our bikes taking then down the road to the storeroom for safe keeping and we walked into this wonderful surprise of a room! 12 tables, a well dressed crowd (except for us), and great gastronomique sights and smells bellowing about! A glass of prosecco upon arrival and exceptional service from the two young boys working the room. Great wine and food (photos below).
As we were getting ready to leave, the table next to us had taken an interest and no sooner had I asked for the bill that we were being given a bottle of wine to take with us as he owns one of the vineyards that supplies the restaurant. We were then invited to sit down, offered glasses of their rose, their prawns, and ended up staying another hour eating and drinking with our new friends. We have made a promise to return for their birthdays in April for a big party in the countryside!
So our 2 hour lunch became a 4 hour lunch and we needed to make good time to make it to Ostuni before nightfall. As we left town we ran into Antonio once again bidding us fairwell. We hadn't over eaten but certainly had drank our fair share of local vintages - much of which was free! Tracy, Derek thinks you may be onto something - we managed 30km in just over an hour and felt better than we had for days on the road! Maybe eating is cheating! Smiles on our faces from the epic afternoon and new friends we had made.
Grazie a i nostri nuovi amici di Mesagne - Antonio, Alex, Vincenzo, Francesco, Giancarlo, Pepe, Piero, Domenica, Agnesa- speriamo vedervi la prossima volta!!
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