This morning, Mama Angela made a delivery of warm pastries
for breakfast and another variety of her homemade cheese. The kitchen in our trullo has been well
stocked with all manner of juices, fruits, tomatoes, cheese, biscotti, snacks,
pasta fresco, sauce, and more. Just add
wine and beer…
It was cool and cloudy, which seems to be the norm for this
vacation, but compared to the prolonged winter other parts of Europe have
experienced, we’re not complaining. Our
first stop of the morning was nearby Locorotondo, a small hilltop town of
small, winding, concentric lanes, lined with vertical white houses and the
flower-banked steps that lead to their doors.
Then, it was on to Cisternino, another similarly situated town. It was nearby, but following our GPS, it
seemed to recede farther and farther away.
Truth to tell, it probably would have taken us longer to get there, or
we might have given up without cyber assistance. (That’s a pattern we’ve found to be true in
the past – and would again, later today!)
Ostuni is somewhat larger than the first two towns, with a
hilltop cathedral on a tiny piazza, and old town with encircling walls, and
commanding views of the valley below. Here,
as well as in Locorotondo and Cisternino, the streets near the Centro Storico were
difficult to navigate, especially with our otherwise comfortably large
car.
Tom says that the trick to driving here is not to care about
your car; most bear visible battle scars.
Even in the country, driving is pretty much a free-for-all. One-lane roads bear two-way traffic, drivers
impatient with those ahead of them “create” extra lanes for their personal use,
hexagonal red signs seem to read “STOPTIONAL”, and ordinary intersections take
on the functional appearance of roundabouts.
From Ostuni, we drove through several beach communities
along the Adriatic coast until reaching Polignano a Mare, with a very
picturesque old town perched on cliffs above the sea. Several of its requisite winding streets lead
to scenic terraces with balcony views of blue-green waters crashing on rocks
and into grottoes below. During our time
there, the sun broke through the clouds and for the rest of the afternoon we
drove through a glowing, green landscape.
Our final destination was Alberobello, whose old town home
to about 1500 trulli. It has taken on an
almost Disney-esque character, with lots of visitors and many of the trulli
converted into shops and restaurants that cater to them. It didn’t seem quite as real as either the
other towns we visited today, or as the trulli-filled surrounding countryside.
The Valle d’Itria, which we crisscrossed today, is dotted
with trulli, vineyards, olive groves, and a landscape demarcated by rock
walls. How they harvest anything other
than rocks on this land is a wonder, but this is Italy’s largest wine-producing
region and Europe’s pasta capital.
We covered lots of ground today and were happy to return
(via our GPS-guided circuitous route) to our own trullo and call it a day.
No comments:
Post a Comment