Alberebello

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September 15th 2008

Published: September 17th 2008

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Kurtis

On our Way to Alberebello

We stopped here to pick up some prickly pears...i still have some stuck in my fingers...days later

Wednesday 3rd September
Lazy day!!

This was our last day in Amalfi and we spent it relaxing.
In the morning we packed our clothes and tried to cull our food stuff.

The packing took so long that we ended up going to the beach in the afternoon, actually in must have been late in the afternoon because but the time we got down to the beach in Castiglione, there was no sun on the beach. We walked on to the beach at Altrani. Even then, there was very little sun. Kurt and the kids got into the water but it was far too shade and therefore too cold for me. Within 15 minutes of sitting down, we lost all our sun and Joshua starting looking blue. Each time we’d gone to the beach, we only taken along 2 towels because they dried so fast, there was never any need for more but on this day it was cool and they had to share the towels and poor Kurt ended up with the soggy wet towel.

After dinner we packed the car with all the main suitcases and non essential food stuff which meant we could get an early

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Josh in front of the church.

start on Thursday. As we packed and gave the place a quick once over, we were visited by the owners, who’d come to say goodbye (or check up on the state we were leaving their place!!)

Thursday 4th September
Amalfi -Alberobello -Nova Siri (Matera...Metaponto)

We started out early on Thursday mainly because we were hoping to visit a cute little town called Alberobello on a way to Mentoponto where we were going to spend the night. We explained to the kids that were going to drive right across the ankle of Italy and down to the arch of the foot.

Kurt was relieved that we’d caught very little traffic and very few buses on our way out of the Amalfi coast. The drive to Alberobello was great once we got onto the autostrade (freeways)in Salernon and Kurt thought they were as equal to or better than many Australian freeways. The freeways from Salernon to Alberobello and down to Sicily were beautifully decorated with a middle strip of low flowering hedges.

At each toll stage we’d pay about $3.00 and at one stage there was no person manning the booth, just a coin tray which

Alberebello

We stopped to have a lunch break,,,the town stopped for a siesta

automatically calculated the amount of money being dropped into the tray and once the due amount was given, the boom gate opened.

Finally we came to one booth that just stumped us all. The Italians have Telepass, which is the equivalent to our City Link pass, therefore at each stop we had to avoid the lines that have the Telepass signs. But this booth only had 3 lines all marked with Telepass. There were no other cars around so we drove into one line, but there was no person manning the booth and no section to drop coins. Like typical tourist we reversed, stopped and waited for other cars to follow. We pushed a little red button, which was for assistance, and it spoke a few words of rapid Italian which Kurt couldn’t understand and the rest of us were unable to hear and the boom gate quickly opened. With a sigh of relief we drove off. Oh boy, if we could relive those last few seconds, we would have done things differently!!!

Anyway we drove on and found a petrol station, where we bought some diesel, used the toilets (had to scrabble around looking for paper, again,

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On our way to the Truli Village.

when will we learn???) and my Mum had to make some calls.

When we reached Alberobello, we stopped and had some lunch. The city centre was very pretty and obviously about to close and there was also a great trendy looking market which we would have loved to visit but also was being pulled down for siesta. So we made some fresh paninis and walked down to the trulli houses. There are a lot of trulli houses throughout the Puglia region, but in Alberobello, there is a mass of over 1000. They are tiny homes made of a black stones which is readily available in the area. They look like to top section of an igloo; white and peaked in a dome. What’s amazing is that at some time in their history, an additional tax was paid for having mortar between the roof tiles as well as a tax for the home. So these ingenious people, built their homes without mortar and when the tax collector was due
in the area, they would dismantle their homes back into pieces of flat white stone, hide them and avoid the tax. Then once the tax collector had passed, they would reassembly

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A quick toilet stop..... they had to pay...I got in at siesta time and saved my .50 Euros.

their homes. Being cute, small and white and repeated many times over, they were adorable site to see. Of course, there were trulli shops, trulli bars and even trulli accommodation and many, many souvenir shops……and let’s not forget all the available wine and liquor tasting. How many times can Kurt and my Dad try the same damn lemoncello, in flavours like prickly pear, mango and of course, lemon? (We were already carrying the 5 bottles of homemade red wine from Amalfi)

We continued on our way down to the town of Mentoponto on the coast. The drive was great with Kurt’s music and my Mum slicing fruit and handing it around. Katelyn and Joshua alternated in the front seat with Kurt and I.

We were staying in a very pretty caravan park called Casto Bolito, which had planned activities all day except for the siesta hours, when even the pool was closed. Which seemed ridiculous because when asked they said there was no life saver during the siesta period, but I hardly saw a life guard outside that period either!!! But there were activities for the kids, pool competition and pizza/restaurant facilities.

With each accommodation, starting

Alberebello

from Dubai, to Rome and then Amalfi, we’ve noticed they’re being getting smaller and smaller. Kurt says it’s his way of acclimatising us to being in the motor home where we’ll be sitting on each other’s laps!!!

He wasn’t exaggerating! The cabin in Castro Bolito was by far the smallest. It had two bedrooms, a double and 2 sets of bunk beds!!!! The kitchen area was minuscule but the one saving grace was the huge front patio with an extendable table.

When we’d arrived it was about 5pm, and although we had a great drive and arrived in good time, we were still tired and hot. Unfortunately the cabin was boiling and we discovered had no air conditioning!! Luckily the reception staff took pity on us and gave us a portable air condition which saved our lives….We also decided to give ourselves a break and although we had the time, and the supply, the initial heat in the cabin, turned us off making even the simplest and quickest of pastas. We opted for a quick, cheap pizza within the caravan park.

Let’s clarify something… It wasn’t a pizza shop and he wasn’t a pizza maker!!! It was

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The Trulo church....

just a stand in front of a pizza oven and he was a sweaty man!! I think we were visiting at a time just outside peak, because the caravan park wasn’t full and there no queues for the pizza. That should have been a sign for us!! He made the pizzas so fast and when we asked him if he’d cut the pizza, he just said “No!” My Mum and I stood there like idiots and just looked at each other, waiting for him to say, would you like me to cut it? But he DIDN’T. He just packed away the ingredients, walked away and went to sit with his friends….. Katelyn ran back with the pizza (another mistake) and when we opened the box, the toppings had slid right off the base and were all piled up around the edges. We tried to spoon the topping back onto the base and accidently added some of the cardboard…..which Kurt found….. They were revolting pizzas!!! The super thin base would have made Naples proud and the topping were out of this world. Apart from my Dad we’re all coming to like the artichokes found on Italian pizza but the Japanese mushrooms

Alberebello

With Maria...a nicer view.

were too much …..very slimy and so wrong on an Italian pizza.

After dinner we sat and had a lovely relaxing evening, spoke about the trip, the caravan park and the plans for the day after. We decided to have a lazy day because all we‘d wanted to see was Alberobello.

We discussed the problem we had with the booth…Remember we’d left the booth without paying, like everyone else and driven off….well it didn’t quite finish like that!!! We’d continued to drive for a few hours and it was a dream run….until we came to the paying booth. Kurt had said all along that we’d be paying a bit of money for this beautiful stretch of freeway…..and he was sort of right!!

We approached the booth and waited for the price to be displayed. When it wasn’t and the man looked annoyed with us, we asked Quanto costa? (How much does it cost?)
He looked even more angry and started saying, how am I supposed to know whether to charge you E2, E6 or E 10 eros? Where’s the biglietti (ticket)??? OOPS!! Eventually we make him understand there had been no ticket, just a button. We explained

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Inside the Trulo Church..

that we were tourist and had been paying since we jumped on the freeway at Salerno but at a certain booth, we thought was Avellino, they’d been no person. He was annoyed and making comments about the queue we were creating…..there was 1 car behind us!!!!We become a bit nervous when he got out and started taking down our license plate number and even more nervous when he started using a calculator!!!! Until then we’d paid no more than E1.90…so we all nearly died and Kurt nearly blew a blood vessel when the price of E70 flashed before us!!! That was nearly $140 AUS for a damn toll. All at once, we started saying No, No, that’s too much!!! He raised his hand, indicating that we wait and quickly went back to his calculator. A new number flashed….E13.70. It was still a lot of money but we were relieved to pay and move on. With our long receipt we headed off…….. but it wasn’t until after 30minutes of us all bitching and moaning, that Kurt said What was on the receipt?? The receipt was written in Italian but thank god, had everything translated.

After I’d read it out loud….

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The Church.

it was then that we nearly died!!! The horrible man had charged us E13.70 but there was still the remaining E57 TO PAY!!!! After 15 days, there would be an additional penalty!!!In Italy if you don’t have the ticket you’re charged from the furthest point of the freeway. Luckily there was a car rental place close by, so we stopped in and asked for advice. They were really helpful and recognised the booth attendant Gabriel from our description. This lady called her husband who worked with Gabriel and explaining our situation. He said not to worry, as we’d paid E13.70 and the matter was finished but for our own peace of mind, we should find a PUNTO BLU at a toll booth, explain the situation and have the remaining bill reversed. They all suggested we forget the whole thing and like any other Italian ignore the bill! Our problem was our rented car!! We didn’t want a huge bill on our credit card through Hertz. We were told that this problem could be fixed up anywhere in Italy including Sicily. (I’m typing this in Licodia 3 days later and it’s still not resolved because we’re now told Sicily is a

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Shops in all of these truli!

completely different company and cannot help us!!!!!!!)

Anyway, back to Castrol Boleto. With the portable air conditioner, we’d cooled down the bedrooms to a near freezing temperature and although Kurt and I slept separately, we slept well.

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