A holiday in Puglia,
Italy... If you look it up on the map, it is the heel part in the southern most part of Italy. Arrived in Bari, Thursday 18th October to a very cool day. Thank goodness our hire car was available and we were soon packed up and ready to roll... but do remember that they drive on the other side of the road to the UK & SA.
Fiona had first drive shift and I played navigator... Unfortunately Fi turned out of the hire parking right on to the wrong side of the road only to have 2 cop cars wanting to use the lane we were incorrectly faced in. A quick reverse soon solved that problem and we were on our way with me saying " stay on the right" each time we turned or drove into a roundabout. The rest of the journey to the B&B was not without its challenges but we made it there in one piece.
We stayed in the lovely Masseria Banco. Masseria means farm house...
this was a working farm that had 100 acres of olives as well as some citrus and produced its own vegetables. The Masseria has a wonderful restaurant that is used by both the guests and locals and hosted 2 christening parties while we were there. The food there was wonderful.
Fi had pre-booked 2 meals and we stary there for a 3rd as well. We ventured into the nearby town of Avatrana to sample one of the recommended local restaurants, great experience. That was on the Saturday when I was hoping to find a restaurant with SkySports2 to watch the rugby world cup final, but with no luck.
In the 4 days we stayed at the Masseria we toured all around the Southern tip of the heel only to find that most of the seaside villages were completely shut... the houses were shuttered and there were not even cars parked in the town.
We were lucky if we found the fishermen using the marina, but otherwise they were ghost towns. It felt really bizarre. The coast area was really lovely, but I can see that during the Italian summer month of August it must be a total nightmare with the families coming down from central Italy, Milan, Rome and Naples for their summer break.
We did manage to go into Lecce which has some fantastic architecture and the old part of the city great. One thing we did notice is that the roads are narrow and parking is a nightmare... what must it be like in the summmer? The Italians do not follow road laws and will even overtake on a double white line. They get extreemly impatient if the traffic isnt going the speed they want to travel and will drive right up your rear end. On one occasion when I was driving the guy was so close to me I could not see his bonnet... they are real nutters on the road. The parking is even worse... they just put the nose of their car into the parking space with the bum of the car just sticking out.
On the Friday we drove down the coast from Avetrana to Galipoli where the old town is on a little island just a short bridge from the mainland. Stopped there for a lovely lunch. During our touring we managed to work out how the signposting worked which had us a bit confused initally as the arrows point anywhere and you just have to work out where they expect to go, but because the towns are not huge we always managed to work it out in the end. The next day we drove on the main highway all the way down to Leuca and took the costal road all the way up to Ortranto which has a very pretty old town. Sunday we drove up through Manduria, Francaville, Martina Franca, Locorotondo, up to Alberobello where they have the trulli houses, which are houses built with peaked roofs... quite unusual. There is a whole village area of these in Alberobello, but because the weather was discustingly wet and miserable, we didn't venture too far into the village as one had to do this on foot.
On Monday we checked out of the Masseria and were fortunate to have the General Manager of the farm visiting so he took us on a tour of the olive factory, where they produce the olive oil. Theirs is one of the most modern factories where they extract and bottle 2,000 tonns of olives a day. The Puglia area is one of the highest growers of olives and supplies enough for for half of the olive oil used in Italy.
Did you know that olives cannot be picked and eaten off the tree. In order to make an olive edible it has to be soaked in water (usually salted water) for 3 days where the water removes the bitter taste and makes it fleshy and good to eat. And goodness where they good.
We then drove down towards Toranto where we skirted the city on the motorway past all the industry which was very evident and very unattractive. This is a port city with a large harbour. We took the coast road for quite a way and then headed inland towards Sapri, which is on the coast about 2 hours south of Napels. Driving through the mountains was absolutely spectacular, especially with the snow and there was even snow on the road we took. Just shows how high into the mountains we went. What I found amazing were all the villages perched high up on hills and mountains. Very beautiful.
We drove down the mountain road into Sapri and then headed south towards Aquafredda and then on towards Maratea where we found our B&B on the coast road just outside Maratea. It was really lovely placed right on the cliff with a full view of the setting sun over the sea. From the pool balcony it was straight down to the sea... there was a path right down but we didn't get to do this. The house was run by the owners where were not present while we were there but they had an Indian (illegal) fella there who could hardly speak English or Italian, but was very helpful. The poor man has quite a lonely life in the wintertime. We were to stay for 3 nights before heading back to Bari to get out flight home, but felt that the drive back would be a challenge to get there with enough time for our flight at 16:10, so we cancelled our last night and booked one closer up toward the airport in Noci. We drove into Maratea up on the hill and found a wonderful restaurant for dinner. The young lady serving us was a lot of fun... only about 3 couples in the whole place.
On Tuesday we wondered down the coast to Tortora Marina... it was really lovely going on the windy coastal road but where it flattened out the towns became very un Italian and very tacky with Las Vegas style resturants and clubs. We drove back to Maratea to the Marina for lunch and found a wonderful resturant. From where we were sitting we could see right up the mountain to the statue on the top of the hill so after lunch we ventured back into Maratea and wondered around the town and took some lovely pictures. Then we drove all the way up the windy road all the way to the top... even I was nervous. There was even a small village and a church at the top where the statue is situated. It is really high up and from there it drops all the way down to the sea...what a beautiful view.
Drove back to the B&B, relaxed and then drove about a mile up the road to Aquafredda to another recommended restaurant for dinner, and again only about 3 couples there. The summertime must be really buzzing as it was a large place with lots of tables out on the patio. The following morning we packed up and went for breakfast before heading back towards Bari. Going through the mountains was wonderful and we were soon back on the Bay of Toranto before heading back inland towards Noci via everywhere. We finally found the place which was wonderful and had trulli apartments... we didn't stay in one. We relaxed in the room and went to the restaurant for drinks before dinner. They treated us like royalty and when the place was open were ushered to our table... it feels awful to be the only table at the restaurant but again the food was fantastic and we had great wine... walking back to the room was a breeze.
In the morning we woke up early and spent a good part of the morning reading a book before making it to breakfast before it closed... checked out and started to make our way to Bari. Stopped off at a place I cannot remember where we wondered around the old city and had lunch at a wonderful local restaurant before making out way back to the airport in Bari to make our way home... plane was delayed but I think we got in on time, drove back to Fiona to pick up my car and drove home. Had work in the morning but at least I was rested and ready for work on a Friday...weekend again. Yippee.
Hope you are well and enjoyed the story!! Take care and tons of love...
Will put some of the photos on Facebook...
Love
Lynn
