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Published: November 12th 2009
We have just returned from a mid week escape to Puglia - the heel of the boot. Puglia is known as the 'deep south' of Italy and is a province less frequented by hordes of tourists than the more traditional destinations. We were lucky enough to visit in time to see the last glimpses of Autumn as most of the trees still had amber and red leaves. Although it was chilly, we avoided the rain and had clear blue skies the majority of the time.
Our first stop was the town of Alberebello which is about 3 hours from Naples. Alberebello is famous as the home of the Trulli Houses. A Trullo house consists of a round base made of white limestone topped with a circular grey slate cone roof - a Smurf House! The houses developed in the 14th century when the nobles in the area were forced to pay taxes to Rome on every new house which was built. They ordered the people on their lands to construct makeshift dwellings - the trulli houses - which did not require mortar so could be rapidly disassembled at the first sign of tax collectors or royal inspectors. Even after the
law was abolished, people in the area continued with the traditional building technique but cemented the walls with more sturdy materials. The countryside for around 50km surrounding Alberebello is dotted with old stone trullis, newer trullis and many more modern dwellings which have one or 2 trulli style buildings incorporated into the main structure.
In Alberebello itself there are over 1400 trulli clustered in the center of the city in addition to a trullo church. Some of the trulli are now bed and breakfasts, restaurants and tourist shops but the majority still serve as houses. We stayed the night in our very own trullo as one company specialises in letting out trulli to visiting tourists. Our trullo had a main sitting/dining area and then an alcove for the bedroom which was separated by a hanging curtain. Thanks to modern heating, it was very cosy and we had a wonderful sleep-in due to the lack of windows!
The next day we headed off to the Grotte di Castellana which is an impressive set of limestone caves. We arrived promptly on the hour as we were reliably informed by our Lonely Planet that this was when the 2 hour guided
tours left. Unfortunately the LP failed to mention that in the 'off-season' tours were only conducted in Italian. After finding we were not allowed into the caves unchaperoned, we had no choice but to pay up for the Italian tour. The advantage of conducting a tour in a foreign language is that you can plead ignorance and take photos continually as you did 'not understand' the instruction not to. The disadvantage is that you don't learn quite as much!
The cave system was the most impressive I had ever seen and Jamy thought it resembled Mammoth Cave in the US. We walked through a variety of caverns and passageways over a 1.5km stretch underground and saw some areas with stalagmites over 60ft high. Many of the formations had been given names and even with our negligible Italian we were able to identify The Camel, The Bacon, The Jellyfish, The Mexican Cactus, The Spaghetti and Carrots and The Owl. The most beautiful cavern is known as the 'White Grotto' and the English pamphlet we laid hands on stated that it is the 'whitest' known grotto in the world. It was indeed beautiful consisting of millions of stalactites extending from the
roof of the cavern like crystal chandeliers.
The next stop was the town of Ostuni which is one of the 'white washed' towns the area is famous for. The city is set over 3 hills and can be seen from miles away as the exterior of the majority of buildings are painted white. As we headed up to the Cathedral through a maze of alleyways, we came across a restaurant with a review describing 'magical food' and 'exquisite antipasti.' Not one to walk away form good food, I talked Jamy into an antipasti selection for lunch. 7 plates of divine food followed, starting with a ball of mozzarella di bufala topped with a 'melt in your mouth' prosciutto, pieces of pomegranate and a light basil pesto. A very decadent lunch but such an outstanding one that Im willing to drive any of my future Naples visitors 3 hours there to try dinner!
From Ostuni we headed to Lecce which is one of the largest cities on 'the boot', and the southernmost city we visited. Lecce's claim to fame is its baroque architecture which is described by some as splendidly beautiful and others as grotesque. We were slightly disappointed
by the city that calls itself the 'Florence of the South'. Although the architecture, particularly the cathedral was 'over the top' and interesting to see, it had a big city feel and not quite the same ambiance we have felt exploring many of Italy's other towns.
We stayed the night in Martina Franca which is another of Puglia's white washed hill top towns. I had found an apartment to rent in the old quarter which is the area of Martina Franca we really wanted to explore. Unfortunately I made 2 mistakes in my planning. 1. I failed to print out a map of Martina Franca. 2. We arrived after dark on the the Feast of St Martin - the town's patron saint. This resulted in a hair raising drive (in a massive American SUV) into a city which was built for horse and cart and in absolute mayhem as half of the roads were closed and an extra few thousand people were in town for the evening. We had plugged the address of the apartment into our normally trusty GPS which then proceeded to try and turn us into the tiny alleyways of the 'old quarter' which could only
be deemed as roads by those riding a scooter. After miraculously spotting a park, we elected to leave the vehicle and negotiate our way to the apartment using the GPS. Now our GPS has a pedestrian mode however the mode was not designed by anybody who had ever been a pedestrian in an Italian town. Lets imagine the accuracy of the GPS is 10m. If one stands in any part of the old town in Martina Franca - the GPS could have you in one of 8 different alleyways. As all the buildings are 2-3 stories high, there are no visual landmarks and you lose satellite reception every few steps. I felt like Indiana Jones looking for the Holy Grail. The 'genteel neighborhood of meandering lanes' was really a nightmarish maze. I was holding the GPS, walking 10 steps in one direction (at which point the GPS would jump and show me on a different alleyway), then turn and walk in the other direction. After about an hour of traipsing up and down many of the same alleyways twice, I recognised the building from the website and we really felt like we had found the holy grail as we had
been starting to wonder if we would have to sleep in the car - if we could find the car again.
Upon checking in, we discovered that our apartment was on the other side of the old town - but naturally in a different quarter to the one we thought our car was parked in and a different one again to the hotel garage. Fortunately the hotel had somebody to escort us and we were very bemused when the escort turned up in a tuk tuk truck. (Although I guess it makes sense as that is one of the only vehicles capable of navigating the lane ways in town.) Jamy and I piled in with our luggage and went in search of the car. The poor tuk tuk driver had to drive along the road we thought we were parked on with us leaning out the back until we saw the car. Jamy then had to negotiate the 4 Runner back along the road following me in the tuk tuk to the garage. The advantage of the night's escapades were that we had explored the majority of the town on the way so felt suitably touristed out and headed
out for pizza and wine.
The final day of our holiday was a visit to Matera which was the city in which they shot The Passion of the Christ. Matera is renowned for its 'sassi' which are the cave houses built into the ravine. The city has always been relatively poor and until the 1950s, people were still living in the cave houses in incredibly harsh and unsanitary conditions. The law allowed up to 11 people to live in one cave and most families also kept a donkey and any other livestock they owned in the cave to prevent them being stolen. In the late 1950s, the cave dwellers were forcibly relocated after public outcry when the child mortality rate in the city was publicly reported at around 50 percent. We explored the now abandoned sassi area with a guide we had to 'let go' after half an hour as we only understood one in every 3 sentences though he thought he was speaking English. We did understand enough to learn that there were over 40 churches in the sassi and that many of them made their own wine but were unable to get much further than that. After
exploring a little more on our own we wandered through the more up-market part of the sassi - an area in which the richer people lived and thus the caves were modified to resemble houses although each level of street was actually the roof of the houses on the levels below.
Aside from the navigating experience in Martina France - a relaxing and interesting few days away!
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Pam
non-member comment
Very interesting
Drove through that area in 1969 to get to Brindisi for the ferry to Greece but Fromer's "Europe on $5 /day" didn't have all that info! Our news - which is hot off the press and 1/3 of the family and no friends don't know yet - is that I have a job teaching in a school near Luton for a year starting Jan 4th. Planning to spend Christmas in Paris on way. So if you come to the UK email in advance so we can see you and meet Jamy! Cheers Pam