From the hills to the sea
After two lovely nights in Matera, we began to make our way to Ostuni. We made two stops along the way. The first stop was Alberobello. This is where the famous trulli or dry stone, bee hive-shaped homes are located. We heard stories prior to our visit that the trulli were built in this way so that the house could be disassembled so that the inhabitants could avoid paying taxes to the King. However, on further reading after our visit, the dry construction method was forced on the locals by the feudal lords so that the feudal lords could avoid paying taxes on structures and settlements in their lands. The trulli were all built after the 15th century. They are often symbols painted on the conical stone roofs that have either Christian or pagan significance for prayers, good luck, or warding off evil.
While we thought that the trulli were interesting and the town quite nicely kept, we did not really enjoy our visit to Alberobello due to the huge amount of tourists despite the fact that we were off-season. It was difficult to even walk down the streets, take a photo, or visit any shops. We wore our masks even outside as social distancing was impossible. It is difficult for us to recommend people to visit Alberobello for this reason. It should also be noted that most of the trulli are on just a few streets for a total area of only a few city blocks. This further concentrates the tourists. We actually found the trulli located out in the countryside more interesting and picturesque. If you do want to visit Alberobello, we suggest you go very early in the morning to avoid the crowds or go even more off-season than September. The photos of empty streets that you see on other blogs or Instagram would require stopping hordes of people to snap a photo or getting up very early to visit when it is less crowded.
My only photo from Alberobello without a soul in it.
While in Alberobello we had a quick and casual lunch of freshly baked focaccia with olives and tomatoes stuffed with mortadella and cacciocavallo cheese. It was really quite good.
Focaccia Pugliese (focaccia with olives and tomatoes baked in) stuffed with Mortadella and Cacciocavallo cheese and Colin ready to attack this deliciousness
After Alberobello we drove down to the coast to visit Monopoli. What a nice stop! Trying to avoid any ZTLs (Limited Traffic Zones) we parked a bit further from the Castle and old town than we meant, but this gave us an opportunity for a good walk along the port. Admittedly not as picturesque as we had hoped, but then we arrived at the castle and historical center which was incredibly lovely. The fortifications here date to the reign of Charles V and were a part of his larger coastal fortification scheme to protect his lands from the Ottomans who raided here.
Towards the end of the day we arrived to our final destination for the next three nights, Ostuni. The approach to Ostuni is pretty impressive. The main road comes down a flat plain by the see and as you approach Ostuni you see the white city rising above to dominate the plain. As you come away from the sea and approach closer to Ostuni there are some of the most magnificent olive trees we have ever seen. The trunks are huge. We later learned that some have been dated through dendrochronology to 2-3,000 years old and were planted by the Messapians. The Messapians were one of the three Iapygian tribes that inhabited this area from the Bronze Age until the Roman Republican conquest in 226 BC. Unfortunately, there is a horrible disease killing the olive trees in Puglia. You can read more about there here.
We arrived and parked near the Church of the Annunciation as described perfectly by our Airbnb host. The apartment we had was decorated to a high standard and had two terraces, one with two lounge chairs and above that one with a rustic dining table and a stunning view from Ostuni old town to the Adriatic Sea beyond. Colin took a video of this Airbnb which we will post soon. He also took some drone videos from the roof deck and areas surrounding the Ostuni city walls.
We had arranged for a walking tour of Ostuni through Airbnb Experiences. Rocco our guide really knew the history of Ostuni well from the Messapian period through the modern era. We started out by the Norman fortification walls, reinforced by the Aragonese and moved inward towards the Aragonese castle. Not much is left of the castle as there is now a bishop’s palace, a church, and a monastery in the place where it stood. Probably most fascinating was what we learned at the end of the tour about a pregnant woman from 26,000 BC whose body was discovered in a nearby cave buried in a ritual manner. She was wearing a cap of red seashells that looked remarkably like the Venus of Willendorf (Google if you aren’t familiar with it, cool stuff). We didn’t have time to see her in the museum this evening, but we did go on a subsequent evening and the pictures are in this post.
After our tour, we had an aperitvo on our roof terrace with a view of the sunset and the old town. Dinner was at Osteria La Sparacima at the edge of the old town. A family-run establishment with seasonal fresh pasta offerings, we really enjoyed it. The service was excellent and the food a wonderful representation of local specialities. Reservations are highly recommended in the summer months. Colin had cavatelli with sausage and mushrooms and Sara had lagnari with green beans and tomatoes both with goat cheese. We also tried the local preparation of octopus in a tomato sauce, which was good, but not our favorite preparation of octopus as we seem to prefer grilled.
