I had the pleasure of travelling from Wellington, New Zealand, to Brisbane on a Qantaslink Embraer E190 recently. Being a small jet it has a single toilet at the front and one at the rear. With about 40 economy passengers, after service there was a sizable queue for the rear toilet. Others attempted to use the clearly visible and free, front toilet, no doubt erring on the side of safety, given recent, well publicised issues with turbulence induced injuries.
Instead, they were rejected by a terse toilet monitor who was guarding the queue free toilet for the nine business class passengers and told to join the lengthy queue at the rear of the plane. Surely, a common-sense approach to safety and passenger welfare prevails over exclusive, business class toileting.. In March, we did a small group walk in Puglia, staying in Lecce, Alberobello and Matero, over six days. The walk, sights, food and accommodation were all amazing.
Our guide in Alberobello was the mayor, quite a character who regaled us with stories of local characters while in Matera, the young man guiding us told us of the improvement it made to the lives of his parents by being moved out of their cave homes in the 1950s. The town overlooks a gully and on the last day of our trip we walked there and spied many abandoned cave homes. There were two large caves, the first, a clearly identifiable old church with an altar, confessional and religious frescoes. In the second cave we were met by the local caterer with a cooked lunch, wine and bread served on a long table overlooking the gully.