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Published: August 18th 2023
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It’s yet another late and lazy start. I don’t think it was just the earth shattering noise of the fireworks that prevented sleep. I think it was probably more the fear that the ear-splitting din might have shaken the foundations just enough to make the building collapse and take us down in a screaming heap with it. Anyway, it all still feels reasonably solid this morning, which is a bit of a relief. I wonder if the rest of the town’s been so lucky.
First up is a visit to the Castello Carlo V which stands guard over one side of the harbour. It seems the main attraction here’s not the castle itself but rather a photographic exhibition. The leaflet I’m given tells me that the castle was built in 1529. The town was under Spanish rule at the time, and Emperor Charles V decreed that castles needed to be built in all towns that didn’t already have them. The leaflet then gets a tad confusing (I blame the Google Translator). It claims that Monopoli didn’t actually need a new castle because it already had one, but then goes on to say that that one was burnt down by angry
locals more than 100 years earlier. So maybe the angry locals didn’t do a very good job?
I can’t get access to most of the castle, just the photographic exhibition which is only on one of the floors. The works are by the apparently well known photographer Oliviero Toscani who was born in Milan in 1942. The signage is all in Italian but it’s not too hard to work out what’s going on just by looking. Senor Toscani seems to be having a not so sly dig at a whole range of institutions and contemporary societal issues. There’s the Catholic Church - photo of a priest kissing a nun, racism, homophobia, Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, the fashion industry’s treatment of its models - nude photo of a very anorexic looking young lady, to name just a few. All very thought provoking. So if it’s that thought provoking why isn’t anyone here, absolutely no one except me. Maybe Italians on holidays don’t like having their brains stimulated, they’d rather just lie on the beach, and fair enough too. I hope it’s that and not that a few stray fireworks have taken out part of the foundations and someone forget
to tell the lady at the ticket desk.
We’ve decided to eat in tonight, on our rooftop terrace. We grab Barbie and head off in search of the ingredients for an Italian feast - bread, wine, beer, olives, salami, cheese, tomatoes - the whole shooting match. And whilst wandering the streets it’s a bit hard not to make a few casual observations. Where else in the world would you see someone taking their pet meerkat for walk … on a lead? That was a bit weird. And how old do you need to be here to drive one of those archetypal Italian motorcycles, the Vespa? Twelve would be my guess based on what I’ve seen whizzing past a few times. And it seems I’m not far off. You can apparently drive a 50cc version at fourteen. Fourteen, that’s insane! I was still struggling to tie my own shoelaces at that age, let alone be in possession of a licence to weave in and out of traffic on a motorised weapon. Maybe Italians mature a bit earlier than us Aussies. I certainly hope so.
Anyway, the shopping expedition seems to have been a success, and we enjoy a very
pleasant homemade feast perched on our terrace.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Great photo
How amazing is that view? I would never have guessed this was in Italy.