Final day in the beautiful Pulgia region. Today was driving slowly to Bari via the white city of Ostuni, La Citta Bianca, with its whitewashed walls. It was sighted when we were still far from it as the old town is built on top of a hill and is still fortified by its ancient walls. From high above, for as far as you can see, the plain below is a sea of olive trees. The region is a producer of high-quality olive oil and wine. We circum-navigated by walking, the strong defensive walls built upon the hill-tops protruding rock. Tumbling clusters of white-washed houses wind around the hillside, at the top of which, proudly surveying the surrounding land, sits the magnificent Gothic cathedral. Originally the practice of lime-washing town's served as a means of lightening up ... read more

Oh, what a difference an evening makes. After the traumas of the day all was forgotten last evening as Lecce (and Italy) comes alive in the evening. People just come out of the stonework from 8pm. We are in the most magnificent location, exactly between the old and new town. We strolled the old town, settled on a place for a pre-dinner drink and then sought out a restaurant for a tasty Italian dinner. We had no regrets with our choices, restaurant or food. Today we decided to not drive anywhere. It was walk, explore and appreciate, “Florence-of-the-south”, Lecce. We took in nearly every street of the old town, photographing doors, windows, people, streets, buildings, paths, door knockers, plants, sites of interest, churches, archways, the old town ‘gates’ (entry points), walls, entrances and more. We stopped ... read more

Alberobello is trulli territory. Martina Franca area is trulli territory. There are hundreds. Most of the farms and very small villages are constructed in the trulli style. What is a trulli? From the outside you see a whitewashed stone hut with a conical roof. They are limestone dwellings of drywall (mortarless) construction made of roughly worked limestone boulders. The domed/conical roof is built up of corbelled limestone slabs (see instruction diagram). The walls are double skin with rubble core. Doorways and small windows pierce the thick walls. An internal fireplace and alcoves are recessed into the walls. The roof is also double skin with a watertight outer core. Water is collected via the projecting eaves at the base of the roof which divert water through channelled slabs into a cistern beneath the house. Ingenious. We left ... read more

We escaped the rush hour traffic of Bari by departing early and headed to the hills of Pulgia and the town of Altamura about 45kms away. The town is known for its quality of bread called Pane di Altamura and is sold in numerous other Italian cities. We found the number one baker of the bread, Vincenzo Diele, met and spent time with him in his, “Antico Forno Santa Caterina”, which was constructed and hasn’t changed since 1391. Amazing. It was our friend who we met yesterday, the emperor Frederick who ordered the construction of the large Altamura cathedral which we also visited. We walked and made our way along the many beautiful narrow lanes that make up the old town of Altamura and came across one of the lowest arches in Europe, Arco Basso, at ... read more

Caught the 6.56am train to Naples. A little concerned when it had taken an hour to cover 10 stops as it would mean that by the time we arrived in Naples we would have missed our connecting train to Caserta plus the train to Bari. However, after the 10thstop, the train sped through the remaining 20 stations without a stop, and with smiles on our faces, instead of lines of concern, arrived in plenty of time to find our platform. In no time at all we were in Caserta, with time to grab a coffee (and a roll for me), before our beautiful business class ride through farmland countryside of vineyards, wheatfields, olive groves, vegetable crops and hay fields to Bari and the Pulgia region. The train journey took us from the Gulf of Naples across ... read more