First, make sure you see the videos I added from yesterday's Patron Saint festivities - at the end of this set
Today's pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/debstah1/sets/72157626820352974/
10:15pm: woke up really early today for some reason but anyway, met Angelo at 9:30 and set off for Castellana Grotte, a famous set of 90 million year old (!!!) underground caves and caverns with lots of rock and water formations. We got my ticket then went over to nearby Putignano, which is famous for the taralli crackers. Went back to the Caves for the tour and it is pretty mindblowing. The long tour is almost 2 hours long and you walk deep into these caves with room and corridor after room and corridor filled with stalagmites, stalactites, and other formations of various colors. It's so humid and wet down there that the floor and railings are wet. The culmination of about 1.5km in is the white grotto which is just full of white formations (see this link - not mine - no photos were allowed today past the first room). On the way out, the light was coming in the hole at the top of the first room (this was originally the only way in) and I snapped an amazing photo!
The tour was English and German at the same time and it could have gone much faster if repeating wasn't necessary. also she had these silly little jokes about Italian culture and the rock sculptures (for example saying one that kind of looked like rabbit ears was the playboy bunny?). But regardless, it was really cool.
The cave tour ended around 12:45 and I met Angelo at the exit. We headed to Locorotondo, a small hilltop town with whitewashed houses, for lunch. A teeny slow food restaurant, the place had a tiny open kitchen and was staffed completely by mom and daughter with about 7 or 8 tables. It's places like this that simply don't exist in big touristy cities, or in America. There is no set menu, they just have a few first and second courses every day. First course was a deliciously simple cavatelli with organic black chick peas. I guess they just grow like that but they taste like regular ones. Second was a slow-roasted pork. Delicious!
Took a small walk around this sleepy non-touristy town center that is quaint with decorated balconies and old palaces. Went next to Ostuni, a similar but larger all-white town that's much more famous and touristy, probably because it looks really pretty from the approach road and so it makes a nice photo on the cover of books and brochures. Wandered around the historical center a bit and saw the beautiful view of the valley below, which is covered completely in olive trees.
Came back to Gioia and the B&B around 6 and rested for a while before setting out around 7:30. It was much quieter, but Patron Saint festivities were still going on, the lights in the square were still up, and there were still the vendors up and down the streets. Wandered around since it was busy but nothing like yesterday, and bought a couple small things. By 8:30 I was actually kind of hungry so I went to Charlie Pub, which Angelo said was the best pizzeria in town. It was very delicious indeed. Went over to Caffe Roma and got a gelato.Wandered around the main square a bit more and then came back to the B&B for the night.
Can't believe tomorrow's my last day :(
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