Exploring Puglia and shopping for groceries

[1 March, 2004]

Breakfast at 8:30 Monday morning. Wonderful coffee; Sue has hot milk with hers and I take mine straight out of the pitcher. That’s right, like Amalfi they bring us both a small pitcher of dark, rich coffee, and a second pitcher of frothed milk. 

We inquire about the nearest supermercato (supermarket) and we’re off to shop for the week since we plan to fix most of the meals ourselves. We find the place – called Emmezetta -- about the size of the Pentagon but square – and learn it doesn’t open until 3 in the afternoon. Since it’s 10 in the morning we have time to kill and head off to explore. 

First we head for the ruins of Egnazia where we find ourselves to be the only tourists but enjoy the museum and a walk around the grounds and find ourselves stepping through quite a few fallen olives. Indeed, this land abounds in olive trees unlike anything we have ever seen anywhere else. We see (and occasionally smell) thousands of olive trees. And I mean HUGE olive trees; many of them must be ancient indeed. They are fantastic to see.

Next, we decide to head off along the coast road for Ostuni and Locorotondo up in the hills overlooking the sea.

Over the next several hours we make a few slightly painful discoveries: first we can’t find a section of the ancient Via Traiana which is reportedly located just off the superhighway on the way to Ostuni up from the coast (near Villanova) and we actually looked twice during the day for this section. Also we discover that while this area is pretty popular place with Europeans in the spring and summer, what with the beaches, etc., many places are closed on Monday and some are still closed for the season. Naturally this also applies to ristoranti as well since we can’t find anyplace to have lunch. 

The upside is we do get to see scores of the conical-shaped trulli; fascinating architectural marvels.

Eventually we make our way back to Emmezetta just off the superstrada near Fasano and spend an hour browsing and buying staples for the week.We drive home and decide to relax for the evening. Our meal for the evening was home-cooked sautéed chicken, fennel, onions and tomatoes with a side of broccoli.