7:20pm: relaxing in the room for a while because later I will go out and see the town's patron saint celebration. I'm excited!
Woke up around 8, had breakfast, and met Angelo at 9:30. First we went to Altamura, where they are famous for their bread that stays fresh 10 days and is the only baked product of italy's protected food products. This bakery was the oldest of the many in town, around since the 1400s. It's a huge wood oven that fits tons of breads of various sizes, focaccia, etc. Tasted some tomato focaccia that wasn't quite as good as the one in Bari, but still pretty freaking amazing. The town itself is also very quaint with a really nice historical center.
Went over to a frantoio - a place that grows and produces oil (pretty sure there's no English translation really) - and saw the process of the pressing and tasted a couple of different kinds of amazing oil.
Next was lunch in polignano a mare. Once again tons of food including trofie pasta with speck and a steak. Then walked around this little seaside resort town that's popular with Italian tourists. It's gorgeous, perched on a cliffside with the clean turquoise water below. there was a group of German tourists taking up the whole sidewalk and it was fun to make fun of them.
Finally, we went to Alberobello, by far the most visited city in all of Puglia because of the Trulli houses. One of the only places I've been this week where there are tons of tourists, the whole historical center of this town and even some of the more modern part is full of these interesting rock dwellings with coneshaped roofs from the 1400s. It was built as sort of a lawless town and the founder wanted houses made without cement or anything so they could be taken down quickly if someone came. Now, it's just very touristy, they have fortified the stone walls with cement and paint, and you can go in to a couple of them and there are souvenir shops and B&Bs and restaurants etc.
We went into the biggest one, Trullo Sovrano, that is the only 2-level one. It used to be lived in by the priest and then later when movies were shot there, they would host the actors in this larger Trullo. Now it's got recreations of the furniture, kitchen equipment, etc. It's wild to walk in these streets and see these strange structures.
Tonight is the start of the town's patron saint festivities. the town center is closed to traffic, you can hear the band getting ready, and they've set up stalls all throughout town for the occasion. Should be fun!
8am 5/26/11: Wow last night was amazing experience. Set out around 9pm and started walking through the festivities. Before that there had been a procession with a statue of the saint, a band thing, and church bells ringing for about 10 minutes.
Now it was just a huge procession of people starting from the main square going all the way out to a little fair area with rides, a midway, food, etc. The whole street out there from the town center was lined with people (mostly the same African immigrants selling illegal stuff all over Italy) selling anything you can imagine, from food and candy to crappy jewelry of all types, clothes and shoes, to random stuff like pots and pans and other home stuff. The street was packed with people who all seemed to know each other. And everything was lit up by these beautiful lights.
The fair area was just like any little county fair in Middle America, seriously. Ferris wheel, various bumper cars, a pirate ship, cotton candy, popcorn, a midway with impossible-to-win games for stuffed animals, you name it. Absolutely a hilarious just how similar it was to the US. Wandered around there for a while and then we wandered back and went for pizza. Angelo suggested I try "Diavola" which is basically as close as you can get to a pepperoni pizza. Of course in italy "peperoni" is the word for peppers - chili, bell, etc.
Anyway the pizza is different from Neapolitan pizza, a little smaller and much thinner crust and they use a slightly aged mozzarella so it doesn't get soggy. And it's still cooked in a wood oven so the crust is awesome. Delicious! Apparently its pretty common for locals to have fries or fries topped with sausage/hot dog in pizzerie here. I couldn't believe that's normal for them to eat but they said it is very common in a pizzeria. When I told them the pizza was actually kind of similar to American pizzas in some ways, they asked what that kind of pizza would cost in LA and were more than shocked when I said at least $10 and it would be half as good.
As an aside, Angelo and I had talked earlier in the day about ketchup so he looked at the packet that came with the fries and Italian ketchup has 50% Italian tomatoes, and it's made with regular sugar. And that's why Italy rules.
After pizza, got back to the B&B around midnight and the streets were still buzzing with some people. So fun!!! And tonight is supposed to be even busier because it's the actual saint's day. so i'll have to go out and watch the festivities tonight too.
The day's pictures later.
1 comment:
Sounds fun AND yummy! You must be exhausted!
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