The Cathedral at Ostuni

Sue's Australian friend Barbara came to stay this week and so we did the sightseeing thing. I'm proud of my adopted home and enjoy showing people around, especially as it allows one to look with fresh eyes at familiar things.

Today we went to the "White City" of Ostuni, which sits on the edge of the limestone plateau on which we live, surveying the Adriatic Sea and the coastal plain several hundred feet below. Your man on the left is Saint Oronzo, who stands on a tall column in the town centre. He's the local early Christian martyr and miracle worker credited with saving a nearby town from the plague.

Ostuni is a tourist ghetto, but it also has a sleepy southern italian dignity.

After wandering around the gift shops we climbed up the hill to the medieval cathedral. Barbara is a catholic and so I guess it had a special resonance for her. I mooched around on my own, playing with my camera, while Sue and Barbara read the guide and peered quizzically at the artefacts.

We were the only people there and after a while I began to feel a sense of peace and melancholy as I gazed at the doe-eyed Madonnas and the images of Saint Oronzo, most of which register the mild suprise one sees on the face of so many saints.

Sue asked me if I was feeling OK and I smiled and said "fine", before we emerged blinking into the evening sunshine to wander the lime-washed alleys for a little longer until it was time for dinner.