In the middle of my trip to Italy, I went down to Bari in Puglia to visit Fabio and Vivienne. I had met Fabs and Viv the previous year at the Giaguaro festival where I met Gun and Alessandro Casella; I was going to meet up with Ale when I went back to Rome. Fabs is a local boy from the Bari area and an excellent graphic designer. Viv is originally from Cornwall. Viv was enjoying the chance to speak some English with me. Not that Fabs English is bad by any means. One night we went on a tour of the old town in Bari. A few people said watch out the old town is very dangerous and has a bad reputation; it is funny what people will say about a place without having been there. I was recently talking with someone from Australia who is living in London. Someone told whatever her you do don't make eye contact with people on the London Underground because something bad could happen to you! It is not true and I can say that first hand. Why just the other day, I had a conversation on the tube with someone. He was a bit drunk but he was genuinely interested in having a conversation. Anyway I digress; I did not see anything bad but a lot of people wearing their finest designer clothing going for a walk about town on a Saturday night. In Italy people would go for casual strolls through the town centre in the evening. Everyone would be out; it is part of the social fabric. The old town also looked like it has spruced up a bit; it was quite tidy and the buildings were in good nick. We went to a trattoria for dinner and had a really good meal. This time I was with people who knew where to eat.
The next day Fabs, Viv and I went to Psychedelic Shop in Bari. This shop was run by Davide; a great guy who was really passionate about sixties pop culture. Davide worked in the post office by by day but and the shop was he did the rest of the time. He was another guy I had met the previous year at the lounge music festival. One time I was walking in London with Davide and we just turned a corner and this women saw him and set , "Its Wolverine"; it must have been his sideburns; he was oblivious to what the woman said. The shop is a riot of bright colours and retro merchandise. I was tempted to buy a long overcoat but I just did not look the part in it. We also met Fabio's parents; there was a lot of eating going on when I was in Puglia; this made up for the so so restaurants meals I had in Rome. I will readily admit I am bit on the heavy side; Fabio's mom commented oh you like to eat as she pointed out my stomach; she did mean it as a complement. She was encouraging me to eat and kept offering me seconds. She looked rather disappointed when I declined.
We went to a little village called Alberobello that is famous for it's unusual buildings; the buildings are called Trulli. The buildings have conical roofs made of stone; this style of building was particular to this area. Some of the rooftops would have symbols on them; the symbols were religious and also supposed to be magic my friends were telling me. Fabs and Viv where staying in a rather funky apartment in a town outside of Bari called Mola di Bari. it was right on the water. One day we went for a stroll in the area. We walked past some shop fronts etc and there were many people about. Viv said to me after a few minutes, "Did you notice the door that had a black eagle on it?" I did recollect seeing something. She went on to say that was the office for local chapter of the Black Eagles a fascist group. She went on to say, "They would have loved you as we walked past them". There was a few men standing outside the office watching us go by when we did. I thought nothing of at the time. I was quite disturbed by what Viv said. I though to myself why did she have to say that to me; I would have rather not known but there was getting away from what had been done. Later on she was telling me how her doctor was a member of the fascist group; she was having trouble reconciling the fact that he was such a good doctor to her and also a fascist. She was bringing me into her dilemma and wanted to get something off of her chest. 
One of the last things I did was go visit a castle with them. It is called Castel Del Monte. It's very famous because a the legends say that has got something to do with the Holy Grail search or it could even be the Grail itself. We know for sure it was a meeting point for the Templar order.