Labor day weekend meant Matt got 4 days off, and, being a smart guy, he chose to use those days to cram for his upcoming advancement exam.  We agreed that the kids and I would give him a quiet space to study by taking off on our own weekend get-away.  It was my first weekend away without Matt, and I am proud to say that all went well.  We went to northern Puglia to check out some places I had heard about.  The kids and I loved the beaches we found there, with their offerings of warm, clear, turquoise water and deep drop-offs.   The kids played for hours together in that water one afternoon.   We also checked out the town of Polignano a Mare and the Trulli houses of Alberobello, which the kids were not as excited about.  We stayed in Selva di Fasano in a lovely villa apartment with a pool and hot tub, beautiful gardens, and local kittens that the kids loved playing with.  We learned that simple meals of grocery store food, cooked in an apartment kitchen, is a recipe for success for our family, rather than going on late-evening restaurant hunts that cost money and sleep (restaurants don’t open here until 7:30/8pm).  Finally, on the way home, we visited Grotte di Castellana (Castellana caves).  Sadly we were not allowed to take photos past the point pictured, but it was EPIC, fantastic and mind-blowingly crazy, with tons of stalactites and stalagmites in all kinds of weird shapes and colors, shallow tunnels and wide caverns, rocks and fissures, crystals and fossils, and much more.  It was a perfect ending to our trip.