Once again thankful to get out of the place where we had spent the night, we ate our mediocre breakfast (this time given an odd wrinkle – everything was self-service except the milk, which the barista poured into our cereal for us) and got ripped off by the hotel, which I explained in the last post.
Kinda angry, we set off for Troia. It’s a town, right near Lucera, whose name translates to “slut.” The etymology might have to do with Helen of Troy, but nobody can figure out why the town would be named after her.
It has a very pretty little cathedral, and tidy streets that were just waking up for market day.
We stayed long enough to buy a couple bottles of the wonderful wines that are made in the area, and then left town in the direction of the Castel del Monte, one of Puglia’s best-known sites and one that we had frankly not heard of before getting to the area.
On the way, we passed some more of the strange little stone huts we’d seen the day before. I’m still not sure what their purpose is – I was thinking for shepherds, since they’re so small, but then why are they so close together?
We stopped for gas in the tiny hamlet of Giardinetto (small garden), where the man who came up to our car must have heard us speaking in English – he said, in a pretty thick Italian accent, “Fill ‘er up?” We gaped at him, and said “Si!” We then asked him in Italian if we were in Giardinetto, and he said in English “Yup – you lookin’ for someone?” We weren’t, but we thanked him for his help.
Then we passed this surreal house. Any guesses on the statues? Husbear thinks one of them is supposed to be JFK.
Back to normalcy – we reached the Castel del Monte, which is a strange castle, another legacy of Frederick the Second. Perfectly octagonal, with no moat or drawbridge or much evidence at all that it was used for war. There also aren’t any servant’s quarters, or evidence of its having been intended as a residence. The literature we read inside implied that its probable use was symbolic, since the castle can be seen from miles and miles away and would have been a great show of the power of the Swabians.
The fact of its being octagonal means there are eight trapezoidal rooms on each floor. Doors lead from one to the next, but not all of them connect to the central octagonal courtyard – another reason it would have been pretty impractical as a residence. Spiral staircases occupy the towers.
We spent a good bit of time at the Castel – there was a so-so photography exhibit in a couple of the rooms, and some terrific information on the history of the castle and how much time and work went into restoration. Eventually, we left with the idea of stopping in Ándria, the home of the indescribably awesome burrata cheese.
We first had burrata at a restaurant here in Florence called il Pizzaiolo. The menu called it Mozarella di Burro, and we got overly excited thinking we were eating donkey mozzarella. We are occasionally not so smart. It’s actually a little pouch made of mozzarella, filled with long tendrils of mozzarella odds and ends and topped off with cream. It goops cream satisfyingly when you first stick a fork in it and is worth seeking out for its fun interactivity.
We did find some very nice burrata, which Husbear bought along with the rest of a spread for a picnic – some prosciutto and capocollo, rolls, wine, water, and these little marinated fried fish we’d been seeing in stores. Everything was good, though the fish turned out to be an acquired taste – a very vinegary, fishy acquired taste. Interesting, but not something I’m going to seek out here.
We spent the next hour or so driving south towards Alberobello, our eventual stop for the night. When we reached the town of Putignano, we spotted a cemetery and decided to take a closer look.
The outer ring of the cemetery, up against the walls, was lined with the family crypts. These small stone structures all had a very Art Deco kind of look to them, and indeed it appeared that they were mostly built during the 1920s. All of the ones we peered into were set up with chairs for mourners.
The center of the cemetery was taken up by long blocks, with plaques marking the final resting place of the deceased. I was most struck by the age difference of many of the couples – some husbands died thirty or even forty years before their wives, but they still shared a common plaque.
It was amazing how many fresh flowers there were on each of the gravestones. Several people came into the cemetery while we were there to replace wilting flowers. It looked like many families had even left jugs of water by the graves – perhaps for the gravekeepers to water their flowers?
Time to move on, so back to the car and onward to Alberobello!
We saw our first trullo on the road out of Putignano.
These wonderful little gnome-houses have a prosaic history. A local landowner, in the 14th century ordered the people living on his land to build their homes without mortar so he could evade tax laws. This little patch of Puglia is covered in trulli, with the largest concentration of them being in Alberobello.
The fact that these homes are approximately the cutest things EVER OMG means that Alberobello has become a bit of a bus-tour crazy town over the last few years. But, in January, we were hoping things would be different.
We found our hotel after only circling town twice and arrived at a door boasting a big sign: CHIUSO PER FERIE AL 22-1-07. Crap. Closed for vacation for two more days? But we had reservations! But then, a nice lady came and opened the door and explained to us that the owner was actually getting back that night. OK.
We dropped our bags, got a map from the front desk, and went to explore Alberobello.
There are two major areas of trulli in town. One, the Rione Monti, is full of trulli shops, trulli bars, trulli restarants, trulli discos, and dazed Japanese, American, German, and Italian tourists (at least in high season). The other Rione Aia Piccola, is still actually inhabited by Alberobellans. (Alberobellese?)
We started out in the commercial area, which was quite nice, as most of the shops were closed for the evening.
At the top of town, there’s a new church that’s been built to look like a trullo, to fit in with the neighborhood.
We then walked over to Rione Aia Piccola, and did a little wandering through the streets. Each trullo is topped with a different topper – some a simple ball, others with interesting geometric shapes – and many of the homes are also painted with white symbols on the rock. These can be Christian (symbols of the Trinity, etc.) or magical (symbols of Saturn, or love, and so on).
The streets were just about empty except for us, and it was nice to be able to imagine people just going about their business with the backdrop of these oh-so-different buildings.
Then, for budgetary reasons (the menu prices were a bit of a shock – hey, tourist town!) we stopped in a packed little pizzeria that I think was called Pizzeria Creperia 2001, sat at a counter, and ordered a pizza. Not to shabby, for just some random place on a corner.
Tomorrow, day trip out of Alberobello to Ostuni, where we have an amazing lunch, and we check out the sweet little town of Cisternino.
