Vieni A Ballare In Puglia

A very early morning flight took us to Bari on the east coast of Italy.  This was followed by a short train ride which took us into the city and then, what should have been an 8 minute walk to our hotel, turned into a half hour trek in the pouring rain.  Never mind, our hotel, Villa Romanazzi Carducci, was well worth the squelching shoes.  The modern hotel is situated in the grounds of mansion built in the 19^th century and is surrounded by beautiful gardens, fountains and a massive swimming pool. 

Luckily for us, the rain gave way to sunshine about an hour after our arrival, so we set off to explore the city.  The first thing that we noticed was the massive Norman castle, Castello Svevo built in 1132 by King Roger II.  We didn’t enter the castle as it was already late in the afternoon, however we did walk around the imposing structure.   




We did, however, visit the Basilica di San Nicola, a lovely church built between 1087 and 1197 and supposedly the repository for he remains of Saint Nicholas.  We viewed the tomb of Saint Nicholas in the crypt, however one wonders whose remains are interred there as only in the last week a tomb has been unearthed beneath a church in Demre, Antalya, which is now believed to hold the saint’s remains.  It was still an impressive tomb regardless.  We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the old city before dining in our hotel, as we were starting to feel the effects of our early start.

I Trulli Di Alberobello

I would have loved to have had a swim in the hotel pool however, in true Italian style, the pool did not open until 10.00am which was the exact time that we had to leave to catch our train to Alberobello.  


 The train journey took two hours winding its way through the countryside resplendent with olive trees and grapevines.

Michael had wanted to visit Alberobello as he had read about the village in a book on Puglia.  The village is famous for its unique trulli buildings (small, limestone conical dry wall structures).  The trulli of Alberobello have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1996.  The room we stayed in was a 16^th century trullo, situated in the middle of hundreds of other trulli.  The only modification undertaken on our trullo was the addition of a bathroom.  It was very comfortable and cosy.

Walking around the village was fascinating as the narrow lanes wound their way through streets lined with these unique buildings.  There were many shops selling everything from ceramics, biscuits and pasta.  There were a number of bars and snack stops along with several restaurants so there was plenty for us to see and do.  

 

We dined that night at Trullo d’Oro and I enjoyed the local specialties of orecchiette and Negroamaro.  The Festival of Light was being held whilst we were there and it was lovely walking around the town, viewing the different light displays.  The best that we saw was an ever-changing projection on the white washed walls of the largest trullo.  There was everything from stars and planets to fish and coral and scenes from Escher.  

 

We spent the next day visiting a couple of small museums including the Museum del Territorio which showed how the trulli were built and the Olive Oil museum (self explanatory).  We kept trying to view the Basilica of the Saints Cosma and Damiano however the doors were closed each time we tried.  Finally in the evening we could see a large crowd entering the church so we joined the end of the queue.  To my absolute horror, the church bells chimed and security stopped everyone entering the church after Michael and I.  We could not retreat and so had to shuffle forward into the packed church while the full mass started (in Italian of course).  We kept moving slowly forward until we could see the exit and then inched our way towards the door desperate to escape what was going to be a very long mass.  We finally made it outside but I had been so intent on escaping, that I hadn’t looked around the church.  Michael told me that it was very beautiful so I guess I will just have to take his word.