John's 60th birthday pre-celebration in Puglia, Italy

Sara and I joined my parents (Ann and John), my mother's sister and SO (Jane and Gibbers), and my father's sister (Joyce) for a week-long pre-celebration party in southern Italy. We stayed in a beautiful trulli near a small town named Ceglie Messapica. It was incredible.

Southern Italy is completely different from the north. It's almost like a different country.

We ate, drank wine, played cards, walked around a bit, and that's pretty much it. Southern Italy is a wonderful quiet paradise.

Ostuni, the white city, is gorgeous.

We cooked a lot with super fresh ingredients. None of the food we bought had any preservatives! Bread was hard the next morning, cheese is meant to be eaten in two days, and the pasta cooks in just three minutes!

I made my special rum ribs in a wood-burning pizza oven. Incroyable!

Happy 60th, John!