On our last morning staying in Alberobello, we decided to... explore Alberobello. Novel, no? Since we hadn't actually seen the town's trulli by daylight, we walked over to the Rione Monti to take a look at the more commercial area.
Things were still pretty quiet, though there were a few other people wandering around with cameras. The owners of the various trulli shops were out in force, trying to get people in their shops ("senza impegno", they'd say, or "no obligation" - though it's always a little tough for me not to feel odd, browsing a tiny shop where you are the only customer and then leaving with a smile). It was the first time I heard an Italian shopkeeper greet tourists in Japanese!
There is still a graffiti problem in Alberobello, though it seems completely incongruous with the old, neatly kept houses. Seeing this in a town of 10,000 people and a bunch of little gingerbread cone houses did make me laugh, though - yes, kid, you are down with the ghet-to.
The trulli are all pretty homogeneous, with the only major differences being in the types of toppers chosen and whether a symbol is painted on the front of the roof. While it's fun to imagine owning a trulli, it seems that dealing with all of the regulations that keep them looking so uniform is likely very, very limiting.
We grabbed a quick snack of a couple of types of bread, one topped with eggplant and one stuffed with tomato. So, we got to eat in a trullo – for only about 6 euros. Not bad.
Walking back to our hotel, we spotted signs for the trullo sovrano. Unfortunately, the trulli museum we had wanted to go to, to hopefully find out more about how people actually lived in the trulli (like the mill museum in Sicily, or the sasso museum in Matera), was closed for a vacation – so we walked over to this trullo sovrano thinking it would be closed as well.
Nope – open! Yay! Turns out the trullo sovrano is the only two-story true trullo. (The museum is housed in a two-story trullo, but it was built with mortar and basically looks like a regular building with a cone roof.) The trullo sovrano, on the other hand, was built when the regulations regarding mortar were still in place.
Plus, there's a tiny hole in the wall in the entrance through which you could shoot people. Just in case.
The trullo itself was very interesting. It obviously belonged to a man of some means, since there were two kitchens... and a second floor! Trulli are usually one-room homes, and when you want to add another room, you knock a hole in the wall and build another room with another cone roof. This trullo was like a little complex.
Husbear signed the guest book for us.
Now, it was really getting on towards time for us to get to Bari (we had to return our car), so back to the hotel. Here's a picture of something you know you have to do all too often on vacation...
Taking the highway to Bari turned out to be no problem - we didn't even see any accidents on our way this time - and we returned the car just in time to catch the hourly bus into the center of town. We dropped our bags at our hotel, just a couple of blocks from the train station, and walked towards Bari Vecchia (Old Bari), hoping to find something to eat.
Alas, we were thwarted once again by the pausa. Everything was closed, though we did eventually find a place that would sell us some of their old panzerotti. You'd think stuffed fried breadpockets would be good when they congealed three hours after lunch, but no. Husbear also bought an arancino that made us desperately miss Sicily's.
We did make it down to the maze of narrow streets that make up Bari Vecchia, and got thoroughly lost for a little while. We were hoping to see women out in the streets making orecchiete (the little ear-shaped pasta), but the streets were pretty well deserted for the pausa.
We did have a good time, just walking and taking pictures and trying to find the Basilica di San Nicola. (We had two maps, neither of which actually gave us any street names in Bari Vecchia. This makes navigating a tad tricky.)
Finally, we rounded a corner to see some desultory tourist stands, selling books about Bari and baskets and postcards, and we knew we were close. Walking through a small arch, we found ourselves in front of the Basilica di San Nicola.
That's Jolly St. Nick, everyone! The patron saint of pawnbrokers, Russians, sailors... and Christmas. Sort of. His remains were brought to Bari by Barese sailors about a thousand years ago, back when any city that had any pretensions of being important had a big-name patron saint. His being here is the reason that today, you can fly from Moscow to Bari one-way non-stop for like 50 euros. Ah, economics.
His actual remains are in an ornate box down under the church, in a crypt. They hold Russian Orthodox services there once a week, even though it's a Catholic church, and their treasury has some beautifully worked Russian icons.
We left the Basilica and walked to the lungomare (the road along the water) just in time to catch the tail end of a fish market and a beautiful sunset.
While we were at the fish market, Husbear's brother Brandog called us - he and his lovely lady fiancee have set their wedding date! June 16th, here we come! Congratulations to them.
Flush with happiness and with our planning hats on, we walked into a vini sfusi shop (they sell wine on tap, and we love them) to buy some wine for our long train trip back to Florence the next day. Somehow, we bought a liter and a half of wine, in a big jaunty plastic water bottle... it was the only size bottle they had!
We got back to our hotel, dropped off our novelty wine bottle, and got changed for dinner. We strolled with the surging passeggiata back towards Bari Vecchia, with the intention of having dinner at a little place called Vini e Cucina. We showed up scandalously early - just after 8 - and were the only people there.
Perhaps marking ourselves as tourists like this is what caused the waiter to start off with us a little surly. Since this was the menu,
the waiter rattled off our choices. I was a little surprised, because unlike the awesome restaurant we had been to in Lecce, where the list of primi and secondi seemed endless, our choices for the primi were "Risotto o pasta." We said "Tutte le due", or both. Then, he asked about secondi. "Carne o pesce?" I thought this was a little odd, not hearing anything about the preparation, but I figured they might just have two secondi a night. So, again "tutte le due", and we asked for water and wine - and off the waiter went, coming back quite a while later with a half-liter bottle of water (!) and a jug of actually pretty good house wine.
The antipasta was a plate of a few slices of mixed cheeses and meats, and some very good marinated raw zucchini. While we were eating our antipasti, an obviously Italian couple came in... and we heard the waiter rattle off a much longer menu to them! Primi: their choices were between pasta, pasta with chickpeas, or risotto, so not that different... but for secondi, the waiter asked them if they wanted bistecca di cavallo (horse), maiale (pork), fritto misto di pesce (mixed fish fry), seppie ripiene (stuffed squid) or gamberi grigliati (grilled shrimp)!
This kind of pissed me off, so when he slapped our primi down on the table a minute later I asked him in Italian what kind of secondi we were getting. He said he didn't understand me. I asked again, and he glared and said "Bistecca di maiale e fritto misto di pesce. C'e un problema?" I said no, no problem, that sounded fine, but I thought I had heard him tell the other table about shrimp? He said "Si, nel fritto ci sono gamberi," in the fried mix there are shrimp. I knew this wasn't what I had heard him offer the other table, but I didn't want to get punched, so I dropped it.
The primi were good - cavatelli with a tasty tomato sauce, tweaked with some of the region's very strong ricotta forte, and a oven-baked risotto flavored with just a few mussels. Greasy, like my Barese grandma used to make.
But, then the secondi came out. By this time, the restaurant had started to fill up, and we heard him offer the expanded menu list to every Italian. Every single one. We were hoping perhaps he had chosen the two best secondi to give us... but no.
This fritto misto was sad, greasy and limp and bready. The fish was bone-in and head-on, which, fine... but I swear I got a little fish bone stuck through a taste bud (urgh! I can feel it when I write this!!!) which is not a fate I'd wish on anyone. The bistecca di maiale, pork steak was overcooked. (No it wasn't just overcooked- it was a thin greasy sad pork chop cooked all to hell and foisted off on a couple of tourists as actual food. -L. Pants)
When we had been reduced to poking at the secondi, hoping they'd get better, a different waiter brought out this hysterical fruit bowl.
He asked us where we were from, and in Italian I told him that Husbear's studying Italian cooking in Florence, but that the food in Florence was very different than that of Bari. We talked for a couple of minutes about Italian food, and our regular waiter's head whipped around. He had the grace to look a little embarrassed.
I mean, I understand that they might get some people in there that don't speak any Italian... but try us, OK? Restaurant Italian is not that difficult, and it's usually the first thing tourists learn!
Anyway. OK antipasti, delicious primi, gross secondi. Good housemade limoncello. Service assmonkey style. 30 euros for the two of us. I have to give them a mixed review, but here's their address if you want it:
Osteria Vini e Cucina: Strade Vallisa 23, Bari Vecchia. 338.212.03.91
(I really, really wanted to like this place. They have all of the trappings of authenticity and the history to back it up. Unfortunately, I think they haven't been able to assimilate the influx of tourists that has resulted from their high praise in the travel guides. Maybe on a different night things would have been better but as it stands they ultimately were only mediocre. -L. Pants)
The next post is about our last day on our trip! ohmahgoodness. We are off to a Superbowl party now, so GO BEARS!
Just wanted to tell you much I'm enjoying your pics and stories of your trip. Really fantastic! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Glenna | Sunday, 04 February 2007 at 22:29
Thank you so much, Glenna!
Posted by: girlie | Monday, 05 February 2007 at 04:45