We are on the final leg of our tour through Puglia (September 15 to 21). This was the most intense part of our stay as we still had so many places to visit in the short time remaining.
I fear that this blog will never end if I try to include everything we saw in this last week. So, I will content myself with just one photo (sometimes two!) of each of the places we visited. In the future, I might try to do some further blogs on individual towns in greater detail than I have done so far.
Every day starts with our coffee ritual at Cafe L'Incontro in Mola!
It is September 15 and we are heading off from Mola along the coast for a while and then turning off into the Valle d'Itria. This is the home of the conical houses called trulli which are scattered everywhere.
Alberobello is a whole town filled with trulli. We had lunch at the Terra Mossa restaurant before exploring the main streets and the labyrinth of tiny streets which branch off from them in all directions. There are supposed to be about 1400 trulli in this town, many of them now turned into shops or other business premises.
The origin of trulli doesn't seem to be all that clear. Some believe they have ancient Mycenaean origins; and some believe that in the 1600s they were first built for farm laborers. There were plenty of stones in the fields and, due to the dry-stone method of construction, they could be quickly assembled or demolished.
In the latter case, yet another story is that they were a way to avoid taxes imposed by the King of Naples because they weren't exactly "houses" and were easily turned into a pile of stones when the tax collector came! In time, trulli became more permanent houses with windows and fireplaces and several rooms. As you drive around Puglia, you see the conical roofs all over the place and many established estates and farms boast rather complex modern trulli structures.
Locorotondo is a relatively new name for this town which has been around since the year 1000. It used to be called Casale San Giorgio, then Casale Rotondo and then in the 1800s Locorotondo because of its circular layout. Surprisingly, in the old days the town was at the foot of the hill but after being spared from the plague it was relocated to the top of the hill near the Church of San Giorgio.
We were not here for long but I do remember this magnificent park which looked out over the valley below which seemed to stretch out forever, dotted with trulli, green olive groves and fields of wheat.
Lecce is called the Florence of the South but I can't imagine two cities which are more different. I think of it as a "golden" city because of its wonderful Baroque sandstone churches, cathedrals and buildings which look truly golden in the sunlight. The remains of a Roman amphitheater can be found in the Piazza Sant'Oronzo. Altogether, a magical city which you could wander around for days on end.
The guy on the bike above must have heard Regee and Armida talking in Tagalog because he stopped and was a fellow Filipino! He had lived in Lecce with his family for over 20 years. He was so excited to talk to someone in Tagalog! Small world--or rather, Filipinos are a huge diaspora!
The small City of Nardo is an absolute gem and where we had a magnificent lunch in Cafe Parisi (below).
Good health!
Gallipoli where we stayed the night and had a magnificent view over the harbor (below)
The view from our bedroom window in the hotel
The Basilica of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria in Galatina with its amazing 15th century frescoes by painters of the schools of Giotto and of Siena. It was the most breathtaking church we saw in Puglia except for the serene Cathedral by the Sea in Trani. Transcendent is the word that comes to mind.
A host of angels way up on the highest point of the ceiling
The details in all the frescoes are astounding
The Castelo Aragonese of Otranto overlooking the sea
We walked through a beautiful vineyard where they were growing "table" grapes
We had lunch with Antonini, one of Vito's oldest friends. They were at school together.
Antonini hosted an amazing lunch for us at a beautiful restaurant by the sea
The famous singer, Domenico Modugno, of Polignano a Mare
The town of Grottaglie is the home of the finest ceramic makers in Puglia
We bought a lot of ceramics here!
Lunch in a town which I honestly can't remember. But Armida informed me that it was the
Il Templari Restoranti in Martina Franca!
Our last breakfast in Cafe L'Incontro, in Mola--the end of one of the most memorable holidays EVER!
It was the only day that it rained in the whole trip. Was Puglia sad to see us going?
Did you count how many towns and cities you visited? What camera were you using?
ReplyDeleteI lost count of the towns and cities! My camera was an old Panasonic Lumix LX7. It is just a point and shoot camera but has a good telephoto lens which makes it quite versatile.
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