The ongoing travels of Susan DeBolfo - June 2014

Hello everyone again

On 1 June I departed Bari by bus to get to Alberobello which is in land from the Coast about a 40min trip.  As it was Sunday the local train does not run so after some details from the main train station earlier in the week I found the bus stop.  Of course being Italy there is no sign to indicate it is the bus stop or what bus company you are catching.  Just people who say, wait here!  So I waited with time of arrival varying from 12:30 to 12:50!  It came at 13:00!  Once on the bus, the driver and his offsider, would not let me sit down as they wanted to know all about Australia. I usually begin, when I buy or do something, to say I am Australian and excuse my Italian grammar mistakes!  The Italians love all things Australia.  I guess in part as they see our economy doing well and life is good. 

I was picked up at the bus stop by the B&B owner Mimmo.  It is a family run business which they have built up over the years.  They own and have restored 10 trulli and manage another 5 properties for others.  They have bought another 12 trulli and over the next 2/3 years over winter will restore.  Their aim is to be able to cater for overnight stay of people travelling in a bus. Mum runs a souvenior shop, brother Lorenzo and wife the bar and they have a wine shop as well.  All lovely and so welcoming.  Mimmo runs guided tours as well.  He tells me business here is very good with a healthy influx of tourists.  Most from Europe, Japan USA and Canada.  Also lots of local Italians.  They also have from the cruise ships that stop in Bari Sunday to Tuesdays and influx of up to 10 buses in the morning for a 2hr tour of the town. 

The trulli (photo below) were the original farmers huts made from dry stone, no mortar, and conical roof.  All white painted and slate roof.    The were built in 1700s so when the tax man came, the local lord, who owned the land and the people, could get them to dismantle the homes and not pay tax.  I guess the Italians have had a long time to work out ways to avoid tax!

My trulli has 3 rooms, a bedroom under the conical dome, dining table + day bed +TV room and en suite with a great shower.  In Bari I could not turn in the shower it was that small so it is great to have space here.  The walls are 1m thick so the heater is on even though it is quite warm outside.  It must be great here when Summer really hits!  I am on the main tourist street and to use the internet I have to sit on the step outside my room or go opposite to the family bar across the road.  Great to watch the world go by. The only annoying thing is they sell penny whistles which obviously every kid wants.  I think they should be banned!  Funnily enough on 3 June it is like a switch of a light has happened.  Children are back at school, tourists usually stop as it is too hot and the place is deserted.  Lovely for me but I feel sorry for the business people who sit on a stool in front of their shop from 8:30am to 8pm trying to entice people to buy! 

There are 2 trulli sections in town across the main road from each other.  I am in the more touristy one but walked this morning in the other which has no tourist shops. Tourists start to arrive by 10am so walking the quiet streets early is lovely.  Watching the little garbage truck collect the days rubbish was fun.  You leave your bag of rubbish outside your door and the truck weaves in and out of impossible roads to collect.  Down one, reverse back up, down another. I cannot believe how he remembers  where to go or has been.  There are no straight grid roads here.  This is a pedestrian zone so he has to be out real quick!

Only 9000 people live here.  Most outside the Trulli zones.  It has quite a village feel after the big city of Bari. It seems the fashion remains as in Bari.  Very glitzy platform shoes seem mandatory in the south as does torn jeans or shorts worn with stockings.  Before you guys get excited remember the women are shorter and larger than me!  Also the young boys love their flat tops and I saw even "tails" at the back of no.1 haircuts.  I am waiting to see a mullet!

I was recommended a restaurant by barman Lorenzo called Casanova (new house) down the bottom of the hill.  The restaurant is in the 1770 old wheat mill which is underground.  It is a huge area and used to employ 7 people (14 on Sunday) to grind the wheat.  The floor is original and magnificent as if recently polished but is like it is due to years of usage.  I had the local antipasto platter of hot and cold typical Pugliese dishes.  Deep friend panzorotti (like a little baby pastie) with sausage mince, small fried meat balls, deep fried zucchini flowers, local salami, prosciutto, capocolo from Martina Franca (I have read about and it is sensational), fave bean and chicory purée, baby pork sausages, chicken baked in a sauce and lambs tripe (I overcame my tripe phobia and managed some and it was good), hand made baby fresh mozzarella and a local speciality called buratta (fresh hand made mozzarella on outside but when you cut it there is a cream centre - we have no equivalent and it is sensational), ricotta and mint soufflé and then a hard ricotta wrapped in bacon and lightly fried.  All were small tastings but absolutely sensational.  Teamed with a good glass of red wine from Lecce. Then coffee with some wonderful little biscuits at which point I was ready to leave.  The owner, Ignazio, then came over with this block of dark chocolate on a special cutting board and insisted I try it with a special glass of red wine called Oblio.  I have never tasted a better combination. I am used to a good chocolate and a scotch but this beat it hands down.  All this was for nothing as I was a friend of Lorenzo.  He then gave me a gift of a small bottle of chilli oil as a remembrance of the night.  I am sure I will enjoy it with my cousin!  I have to say one of the best meals I have had and all for $33.  No way would you get same quality for this price at home!  How lucky I am and goes to show always get to know the local bar person!

Tuesday 2 June

Today I went to Martina Franca by train. 15kms away so 15 mins or so and costing $3 return.  Again on time, very clean and efficient service travelling through vines, cherry, olive, almond and peach orchads.  Where we use barbed wire for our paddocks the locals use or retain the original stone dry walls about 1.2m high.  All beautifully built and straight lines.  It is hay cutting time so there are lots of rolls of hay lying about.  Many people grow their hay in orchards and I amazed how close they can cut it to the fruit trees. I am told the cows are further away from the town and obviously there are lots, all out in the open unlike around Parma, where they are kept in cows sheds.  Puglia makes most of Italy's mozzarella and ricotta so they have to be happy cows and well fed! 

Puglia is 95% flat with most hills in the north.  Alberobello and Martina Franca and some surrounding towns are on hills so you travel between on very flat plains.  Along the way In paddocks you see many small trulli.  Some obviously still used as shepherds huts, others in disrepair and some converted to small B&Bs and/or homes.

Martina Franca is a very beautiful Baroque town.  All white and pedestrian only historic centre.  There are many lovely churches all in the Baroque style most restored sympathetically.  There are many fine palazzo's surrounding the main square and their Baroque entrance portals are amazing.

At the main Basicllia there was a church service celebrating 2 June with old and young soldiers and the local primary school children.  2 June is Republic Day when Italy voted the king out in 1947 and became a republic.  There was an organist and trumpeter playing and I must say the music was stunning.  Sorrowful but at the same time quite uplifting. It was terrific to see the children listening to the service much like our young ones do for Anzac Day.  It was also a long weekend in Italy which explains the extra crowds of people.  

After a lovely walk and lunch in restaurant under the neoclassical semi circular portico, felt Like I was in Bath, I walked more of the little streets happily getting "lost" as no map can help here.  

Eventually I went back to the station and for the first time the station man "misinformed" me as to the train to catch.  So,I ended up about 30mims in the wrong direction. No bad thing as the train went down the hill and onto the flat plains area which gave me a chance to see more of the Valle D'Itria. More dry stone walled pastures with the occasional cows and donkeys, fruit orchards and Vines.  I then waited an hour for the train to go back and arrived in Alberobello at 5:30pm.  By this stage the tourists were departing so it was quite nice to wonder back to my room, sit on the seat outside the bar opposite, enjoy a wine and do my emails.  

The weather has been quite cool and windy so needed a jacket and scarf for 2 days!  

Wednesday 3 June

Awoke to a warmer morning.  23degrees by 10am and a pleasant breeze.  Took train to another town, Locorotondo, round village!  It's historic centre sits atop the one and only hill in the area and has great panoramic views.  Houses here have Baltic style gabled roofs.  Never seen this style before.  A few Baroque doorways and windows but mainly plain white buildings all in a circle of roads on top the hill.  Very peaceful and quiet.

I caught the train home with high school kids as there is not a high school in Alberobello.  You will be pleased to know that Italian children suffer the same infliction as ours.  They cannot walk home!  There is only a small parking space in front of the station and it was packed with cars picking them up! Can't find a car spot, no problem, just park on the footpath, pedestrian crossing or anywhere you like, even better if you block in 2 or 3 other cars!  Goodness knows these young teenagers could not walk 10m to the car!  Amazingly no one got impatient and in a few seconds they were on their way home!

Very quiet day in town with few tourists so very pleasant sitting on my step talking to locals passing by.

Thursday 5 June

Last day in Alberobello and market day.  They close off several main streets - most of historic centre from 6am to 1:30pm.  Just like Vic Market but so much better.  Fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese and deli, clothes, flowers, seedlings, Manchester, pots and pan trucks all arrive and set up to sell their produce and wares!  So cheap!  Interesting that for the first time Africans are now taking stalls to sell their jewellery and bags.  I saw a few Africans trying to sell bracelets in a Bari but no one doing the knock off bags. The government brought in new laws last year to stop this illegal trade.  They fined the buyers who,purchased the bags $1500 on the spot!  Straight to the police station and hand over the credit card!  It was advertised but many people still got caught buying but now the illegal trade has died.  Good strategy as they could never catch the sellers. So I am pleased the Africans now do same as locals.  Pay for their stall and their taxes!

Magnificent tomatoes on vine, loose (all shapes and sizes) but smell so good cost $1.50/kg. In fact, the most expensive fruit or vegetable I found were strawberries at $4.40/kg.  local cherries $3/kg!  All fresh from local farms!  When I consider what we pay, in season, for local strawberries and cherries I want to weep!  Reasonable clothes, this is where Italians buy, can be purchased as well.  Jeans and dresses $15, T shirts $5!  I was talking to a local and he said the quality was more than acceptable. They also have a huge shoe fetish here.  There must have been 10 trucks of shoes!  Of course, lots of bejewelled platforms and high heels that were at least 5 inches high! Thankfully also runners and normal shoes!  One truck just sold thongs in every colour!

It is a lovely warm day today, 28degrees, so after a good morning walk of the market I came back to my room for a rest.  The owner's Mum,  Cosmina, invited me to join the family for lunch which is very kind.  We have been having nightly chats sitting in front of her shop or my step talking about Italy, Australia and life.  A gorgeous lady! It is very special indeed to be invited into the home.  We had a light vegetable soup, then baked eggplant lasagna, these amazing round cucumbers, their home grown and made capocolo and great bread washed down with wine from a plastic bottle!  Decanted no doubt from a demijohn.   As the sons and Mum came, ate and went back to their work I sat and chatted with Dad. He had worked as a local bus driver for 30 years and upon retirement bought some land.  He has several sheep, cows, goats, pigs  horses, chooks, rabbits and large veggie plot.  All for human consumption including the horses! Pigs to make salamis. As well he has cut and bundled 95 bails of hay which is a record this year as they have had a lot of good rain. Unusual for here!  Some to keep and rest to sell for $75 each.  He was telling me their aim has been to be as self sufficient as possible so at 6am he goes each morning to work the land and tend animals.  After lunch he rests a bit until it cools then he goes back.  He also picks up and takes clients to train station and helps with restorations.  This family never stops.  Cosmina was doing fresh peas and pasta for tea and was taking the peas down to shell between looking after people in shop.  So I offered to do the shelling for her.  It brought back memories of doing same with my Mum!  Seemed a small thank you for such a great meal and their kindness.  So there I am, the girl from Oz, shelling peas in front of a shop in Alberobello in the cool of the sun!

Tomorrow morning I depart for Lecce.  Right in the heel of Italy and famous for its Baroque architecture and "beaches"!  It is known as Florence of the South.  I met another guide who lives there at the Bar and he has told of some places to eat there so I shall explore.  I am going by train and all being well will get there in 2 - 3 hours!

I have very much enjoyed my stay here,  the hospitality of the locals and being part of village life!

I hope you all are well and my thoughts turn to my family and friends often!

Take care

Susan