Exploring Puglia 2004

 [3 March 2004]

We decided to be low key today. After breakfast Sue did some laundry by hand and set it out on various pieces of furniture to dry by the heaters. And we do need heaters today. It has been cold pretty much the entire time – yesterday was cold and rainy today is just cold and windy. 

But it's time to get out and explore Puglia! We head into the nearest town, Pezze di Greco where we drop some laundry off – pants and shirts, which can’t be done at our place. Then we head off for the Emmezetta for a quick stop to buy a replacement bedside lamp for one Steve broke the night before. We also find another bag to use for check-in since Vito gave us a variety of his canned vegetables and homemade grappa and Rosa has already warned us she intends to give us some of her foodstuffs as well.

After our morning errands we head to Alberobello and serious trulli country. We find the zona trulli, walk around but it is terribly cold and there is very little of anything going on anyway. 

We head next to Grotte di Castellana to see if the grottoes are open this time of year. The Blue Guide says no and it certainly seems as if most things in the vicinity of the grottoes are indeed closed. But in fact we do get in with a small group consisting of a German woman, and three other Americans, an elderly couple and a young woman carrying a newborn child. The excursion underground lasts about an hour and a half and it is truly a fantastic thing to behold. Well worth a stop. 

From the Grottoes we head back toward Fasano taking a back road through a wonderful little valley, which puts us in Selva di Fasano on the ridge overlooking Fasano with fantastic views of the coast. 

 We get back to our apartment and fix a bit of lunch – salumi, cheese, bread and some white wine. 

About 4 in the afternoon we head back into Ostuni – after trying to find the neolithic “Tavole dei Paladini”, the Table of the Knights, near Montalbana but fail to locate its whereabouts. We circumnavigate Ostuni and find a place to park right at the entrance to the old center of the town. We walk a bit – very windy still and quite cold but the view is truly spectacular from this vantage point and itself worth a stop. But there are many quaint – and some not so quant – shops scattered throughout the town. Some are open but many more are closed. And very few ristoranti or Osterie seem to be open although in fairness it is still quite early (only about 5:30 pm). We head back to the apartment for dinner and for the evening.

One can only imagine how wonderful it must be in spring and summer, to be outside in the evening for dinner, on the beach during the day. Still, we begin to wonder if a week in Puglia is a bit too much time to spend here at this time of year.

along the Adriatic