Puglia, the "heel" of Italy!

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Buongiorno tutti,

After Estonia I flew back to Milan where I stayed 2 nights at my friend's place. I also went to Cremona for a day, where I met with an acquaintance of mine. She is half Curaçaoan and half Italian, cousin of a colleague in Curaçao and she is completely in love with the island and wants to go live there with her husband. I also met her mom, who is from Curaçao and living in Italy since early 70's.

I flew with Ryanair from Bergamo (near Milan) to Brindisi for just 65 EUR! I did not visit Brindisi itself, since it’s just a harbour city and has nothing particular. This region in southern Italy is called Puglia (Apulia in English), it’s the "heel" of the boots, Italy's form. My friend Giuseppe picked me up at the airport and we drove to Ceglie Messapica, his hometown and where he has his own small business. I know Giuseppe from Tripadvisor.com, where I'm sometimes active in the forums (especially those in Spanish and Italian) helping people who want to visit Curaçao with information and advice and answering their questions about the island in general. I helped Giuseppe and gave him a lot of information about Curaçao, taking time and answering all the questions he had. He was (is still) interested in starting a business on the island and I met him, his wife and mother-in-law when they came to Curaçao in 2011. He was very grateful with my help and once we all had dinner in a restaurant. After that we always remained in contact and when I told him I’m going to Europe, he invited me to visit for a few days.

Ceglie Messapica is a small, historical town with no more than 25.000 people. Before I continue, I have to say that all the cities I visited in Puglia have their beautiful historical, old towns with narrow streets, churches etc. One of the characteristics in Puglia are the walls made of stones along the roads in the countryside and all the "trulli's" in the landscape (will explain later on what it is). In the past the government actually paid everyone who made their walls this way in order maintain the region the way it used to be. Some people, including Giuseppe and his family, have a second house outside the city where they grow crops, fruits and even have animals. It was my first time in this part of Italy and the furthest south I've been in the country so far. Before it was the area of Naples and Sorrento which I visited back in 2007.

"Terrone" is an expression used especially from people in north and central Italy to call inhabitants of the south...it's a bit derogatory but it all depends on "how" you actually use it. Many Italians, especially those in the north, are not very positive about southern Italy and you might think that southern Italy is really, really backwards compared to the rest of Italy. In fact, it lags somewhat behind compared to the industrialized north, but in my opinion it’s not as much as many people say. Weather has been great during my stay, except for one day on which we had some rain. The others days were sunny with temperatures up to 28°C. I must say that I ate very well here. Giuseppe’s mom cooks very good and Giuseppe himself too! I loved the "fave"; typical food from this part of Italy which looks like mashed potatoes on the plate. Giuseppe’s mom is the sweetest person you’ll ever meet. Very kind, helpful and warm and I've been treated very, very well here by everyone...no complaints at all!

In Ceglie Messapica we didn’t do much (just wandered around a little bit), neither in Ostuni which is called the “white city” (città bianca). I saw Ostuni from a distance with all its white buildings on a hill and we drove through the town twice. Martina Franca is another small city we visited in the evening, wandered around and had some drinks.
During the day we visited Alberobello which I found beautiful and very unique! The old town consists of "truli’s" (trullo houses) which are white houses with conical roofs made of flat stones. The city has around 10.000 people and is a tourist magnet in Puglia, which didn’t surprise me, but Giuseppe told me it’s not heavily visited though. It's very small so you don’t need too much time for a visit. The origin of the trulli’s is not exactly known and different theories exist, but they existed since the 18^th century (maybe even before) and were used by farmers a.o, as houses, granaries or shelters. There are over 1.000 trulli’s in Alberobello and are used as houses, restaurants and shops. The city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1996. There are spots with views over the town and it looks very surreal with all those conical roofs, amazing!

Lecce (pronounced “Leche” in Papiamentu or Spanish) is another beautiful historical city we visited. It has about 100.000 people and is known as a real "Baroque" city. Several Baroque-style monuments are located in the old town, which were built starting in the 17^th century. The history of the city dates back to the Roman Empire and in the middle of the old town there are ruins of a Roman amphitheatre. The historical old town is very small but definitely worth a visit. Those who are much into architecture and art history will love the old town of Lecce! The city is not on the UNESCO World Heritage List...but I think it will be there soon because they're working on it!

Another day we visited Polignano al Mare a small city of no more than 15.000 people and a tourist resort along the Adriatic coast visited by many during the summer, especially Italians.
Just next to Polignano, we continued to the bigger Monopoli, a nice city also located along the coast with 50.000 inhabitants. It's an old fishermen village and the old town is characterized by the Castle of Carlo V, built in the 16th century. At the other side of the castle there is a small, nice beach. Giuseppe tells me that locals of Monopoli don’t take much care of their city and the locals are a bit rude which is a pity because it’s a pretty city.

Together with Giuseppe's sister, Perla, and her friends we went out one night near Taranto. The next day we went to the beach in Marina di Pulsano, a small town located on the Mediterranean coast just southeast of Taranto on the western coast of Puglia. It was end of September so it wasn't very busy. The water was absolutely beautiful: clean and crystal clear!!! I always heard from people that the beaches in Puglia are beautiful and it's true! We spent the second half of the morning and early afternoon here and I played some beach volleyball with the locals. It was weekend so there were quite some people around, enjoying the late summer/early autumn warm beach weather!
After the beach we continued to Taranto. This city has about 200.000 inhabitants and is an important port in southern Italy, plus it's the base of the Italian navy. There isn't too much to see really and tourists don't visit the city that much. The old town is actually a small island and not recommended to walk around by yourself (according to Perla her friend) so we only drove through a part of it and it looked "really old". We walked along the "Ponte Girevole" rotating bridge and the Aragonese castle at the other side of the channel entrance. Then we continued along a part of the boulevard "Lungomare Vittorio Emmanuele II" before we went into the city center itself which I found pretty. Taranto is home to many different industries, including petro-chemical and foodprocessing industries and also the well-known "ILVA" which is a big steel factory. Taranto is the most polluted city of Italy and among the most polluted in Europe. A judge ordered in 2012 that ILVA must shut down a big part of its operations because of too high pollution levels. This made the unemployment, which was already high in the south, only higher!

The plan was to go with Giuseppe on his motorbike and make a trip along the whole coast of the "heel" but that day was rainy and we couldn't go. That trip would have brought me to places such as Gallipoli and Otranto. But it doesn't matter, it gives me another reason to visit the region once again in the future :-)

That's all for this one. Arrivederci!

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