Not too many pictures today (Bari is not that photogenic and most of Gravina was underground and in a museum), but they are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/debstah1/sets/72157626665140365/
10:15pm: Exhausted after another long day. Woke up around 7 and scarfed down a coffee and toast and made the short walk from the B&B in Lecce to the station in plenty of time for the 8am train to Bari. The train was packed and interestingly for a Monday morning tons of people had suitcases. Then more people kept getting on with each stop and it kept getting hotter. and the train kept getting delayed somehow, even though it left Lecce on time. A miserable 2 hours 10 minutes later I was in Bari 40 minutes late, where it wasn't even that warm, and could finally catch some fresh air.
Left my bags at the station and was hungry so I set out to find a focaccia shop I had read about. Found it with no problem and got a quarter of a focaccia and for 1.25 I had maybe one of the top 10 bites of my life. Crispy olive oily chewy thin dough covered with amazing tomatoes and some local olives, all doused on olive oil and 100% out of this world delicious.
Set off to find the historical center which I guess used to be a mess but is now a lot more cleaned up. It looked like a combination between Lecce (color-wise) and Naples's spanish Quarter (old narrow alleys). Found a couple of the major churches and wandered around and found the big castle, which I guess doesn't have much going on inside, and then wandered back to the station, got my luggage, and waited a few minutes before meeting up with my tour guide Angelo for the rest of the trip.
We drove to Gioia del Colle, the town I'll be staying for the remaining 6 nights. Had delicious lunch at a very typical trattoria in town consisting of homemade cavatellini pasta with tomatoes and mushrooms, a steak, cherries, wine, water, oh my!
Went to the lovely B&B and checked in. IT HAS A BATHTUB. That is all! OK no really, it's lovely. Then we set off for Gravina, a small town not far away. Angelo explained that it used to be quite rich, especially when there was a pope from the town, but then came the industrial revolution and hadn't quite recovered. They have this entire underground area very similar to Naples and another guide came to show it to me.
Similar to Naples and Orvieto, basically every town in the historical center has an opening underground, built because they dug underground to get the tufa stone to build the homes above. Then a guy fairly recently discovered all these abandoned cellars underground so they connected them into a tour. Some of them are still privately owned and they have to ask permission. There are old remnants of things (rotting wood wine casks, bottles, barrels, tools), as well as more modern things like coke bottles and toys, showing that people started using the areas for random storage. There are also public and private cisterns as well as silos.
Then we went over to an old palace, the owner of which left it to the city in his will and now it's a museum. So we got yet another guide who showed us around his residence as well as a lot of old pots and more than 1000 coins from Greek, Roman, Norman, and more modern times. Across the bridge/ravine in town (See photos) there are caves from the middle ages.
The sad thing is that this town is basically empty and they don't focus on tourism. A very similar tour in Naples costs almost 10 euros and has full tours in multiple languages all day long. Here, they get someone to open the doors and have to have a private guide show you around with handheld lights. And it's equally as fascinating and important to culture and history.
Anyway, headed back to the B&B for free time, where I settled in. Set out a little before 8 to check out the town, which is getting ready for the Patron Saint's day. Still pretty full from such a big late lunch I just got a gelato at a place advertising everything is made with organic milk for only 1.80!!? Made it back to the B&B and there's a fruit stand across the street. Picked up a 2l bottle of water, a big basket of cherries, and some little tomatoes. For 2.80!?!!?
Did some laundry for the last time. And now going to bed early because it's going to be a long several days!
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