Sunday October 9th
Alberobello is the Trulli capital of Italy, and I guess also the world, since as far as I can tell this is the only area that has them. A Trullo is a circular house with a conical dry-stacked stone roof. They are topped off with little ornaments, and some of the roofs have symbols painted on them, that nobody seems to know the origin or meaning of. The sad part is that modern Alberobello has grown up around them, but there are still sections that are only Trulli. If you can mentally block out the other buildings as you stroll through the residential areas, you could totally be in a movie or on a different planet. We were lucky enough to stay the night in a Trullo courtesy of “Trulli Holidays” www.trulliholiday.com As I’ve said before I don’t like comparing the places we stay, but on sheer “awe” factor this place tops the list. We had a 3 bedroom Trullo, with 5 peaks, so everyone can lay in bed and stare up at their own cone. The rooms were all big with queen beds, there was a kitchenette, sitting room, and a large bathroom. Pay attention to the doorways though, the people who originally inhabited these Trulli weren’t the tallest people, and the bruise on the side of my head can attest to that fact. Alberobello has one really nice church, but outside of that the only real reason to come is the Trulli. There are a number of things to do in the surrounding area, so if you like the idea of staying in a Trullo for a couple of days get in touch with Donato at Trulli Holidays, and use Alberobello as your home base.
From here we headed further south to Lecce. The Florence of the Baroque is how it is described in the books. To enjoy it all you have to do is arch your head back and walk around the historic center. The stone used to build Lecce is soft and easily carved, so there is beautiful ornamentation everywhere. The facades of the churches are as “full” as any you’ll find. There is also a 25,000 seat Roman amphitheater and somehow or another the column that used to mark the end of the Appian way is here as well. The Appian way is the ancient road that people traveled from Rome to Brindisi. Lecce obviously isn’t Brindisi, so I don’t know why they have the column.
It is funny to see the reactions to the camera changing as we head south. Up north people just mostly stared at us. Yesterday a group of older people traveling together saw the camera and came over to talk. They all wanted to be on the screen, they were gregarious to say the least. I think there really is a notable difference between the Southern Italians and everyone else.
From here a gross miscalculation on my part meant we left the area without making it to Galipoli, which was to be our last stop of the day. It is connected to the mainland by an ancient bridge and I really wanted to get a shot of the Vespa rolling over it, but I way overestimated the time it would take to get to tonight’s lodging, so we decided not to go. Only to arrive a couple of hours earlier than we really needed to. But that’s life on the road right.
Our Agriturismo for tonight is in Matera, and it is called Le Matinelle www.lematinelle.com The lodging is in former stables that have been nicely restructured. Our room was large and comfortable. Le Matinelle also has a restaurant which was very reasonably priced, and when the locals came in it had a lively and fun atmosphere.