Trulli magnificent

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Geo: 41.1261, 16.8693

We left Massafra and drove around the bottom of the boot to the tip of the heel, the southern most point of the heel. We stopped and took pictures, had a picnic lunch from the food we purchased the day before and then headed up to Lecce for the night. We picked a modern hotel for one night. It was nice.
We did a load of laundry, went to the Duomo and looked around the old part of town.
The next morning we headed out to visit an area called the Trulli. This area has unique buildings that are round, single story with conical apperance and oddly tapered roofs. They are only found in this area and they don't know where they came from. They are made of layers of flat stones stacked on top of each other with no mortar. They date back to the 13th century, but are still in use today. In the village of Alberobello, there are about 1500 Trulli. We walked around for a few hours looking at them and then had some lunch. After that, we headed to our hotel and a nice swim in the pool.
This morning, we got up and headed on a Romanesque Puglia drive. We visited Trani and the Trani Cathedral. It is right on the Mediterranean Sea. They were preparing to have a wedding when we got there, so we kind of rushed through it. I climbed the bell tower, which was 270 steps and now my knee is sore. They have the original bronze doors from the 12th century, when the church was built.
We left there and headed to Castel Del Monte. Built around 1230AD, the building is octagonal in plan, has an 8 sided courtyard, 8 sided towers, two stories with 8 rooms each. The castle has beeb restored and had beautiful mable columns inside. It was built high up on a hill and had 360 degree views of the olive tree groves and vineyards of the area. We had lunch at a small resturant near the castle and then headed out toward Ruvo di Puglia. There is a cathedral there that captures the best of the Romanesque style. Too bad it was closed when we got there, so we just looked at the outside. We left there and headed back to our hotel for another swim. It was 33c today, which is about 95 degrees! Another scorcher. Tomorrow, we head into the spur of Italy, which gets few turists.

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Comments

[Judy and Anton]

Clever!! But isn't it a Trulli a gnome??