Day 27 Wednesday 11 September

Our specially prepared breakfast arrived a little later this morning and it wasn’t long after we sat down to devour it that Lili video called in so it was lovely to share the meal with her. Our super attentive hosts also both popped into the video call and met Lili asking her when she would visit them! Emilio and Marielle are really superb hosts and make this place so welcoming and create a connection of fondness and goodwill towards the area.

Breakfast was a wonderful adventure into local produce the same as yesterday – today a warm fresh ricotta dish with a homemade jam, a larger mozzarella (fresh from local Italian cows), pear and chocolate flan, crumbed eggplant focaccia, tuna, tomato and creamy mozzarella mini croissants, jam croissants, watermelon and jam croissants. Oh my – it’s a days work getting through breakfast – but we wouldn’t want to offend by not eating everything now would we?

We felt we best leave our comfortable dwellings and hit the road to some of the towns on our itinerary. Firstly we went into town to post our box of clothes home, hoping it would go smoothly which it did. It is never cheap to send things home – 5kg costs 57Euro, however if you consider the price of my gortex shoes – $269 a few years ago – it is worth it – along with our merino jackets and a few of our heavier cooler weather gear. The little 5 kg we send, makes making so much easier and leaves room for a couple of things to buy and bring home.

Waiting in the queue at the post office may not appear a good use of time or something on an holiday itinerary but its actually a great way of getting local and gaining a feel for regular folk and way of life. Clearly we don’t understand a word that people say, but we smile and observe and after the enquiring looks from people we tend to be accepted. Odd as it seems, it enriches our perceptions and we enjoy the time away from the tourist trail.

We navigated and weaved our way out of town to the highway heading south and then inland westerly direction to our first white hilltop town of Cisternino, in the Itria Valley. We found a park a little out of the old town – well we think it was ok to park, and when we got back Polo was fine and still there – and walked a short distance up a gentle slope to the old town entry.

The town is predominantly white, but has grey buildings and patterns which reminded me of a dappled grey horse. The streets are a combination of little lanes, and wider (for old towns) streets which may fit one car down. They seem to take a bit more pride in their town than the fishing village of Polignano a Mare – with no rubbish in sight and a lot more flowers and decorative features. A speciality of the town are butchers that cook the food for you or they look like restaurants with a little butchers window attached. Donkey is on the menu here along with lamb and beef and the bean and chickory dish like we had in Matera.

It was lunch time and Vern who did better than me at breakfast was not super hungry, but I was ready for something with it being around 1:45pm. Most of the general shops were shut – maybe for siesta, but eating places were still open. We grazed around and I did not see anything inspiring in the menu pictures or on diners plates and so we tried to get off the main routes and onto the side streets to find something less touristic. It wasn’t long and we found a modern looking bistro with an upmarket menu that seemed to fit the picture.

Great choice, as is was one of the best meals we have had in Italy this time round. Inside was air conditioned, and the service was really great. I had a raw Kina pasta with tuna tartare, and Vern a lovely tortellini dish with a creamy cheese and crispy bacon sauce. We also got served a complimentary prosciutto and fig appetiser as well as Matera style bread. My taste unfortunately wasn’t 100 percent, but not far off – but I could still smell and taste how fresh my dish was. The pasta was tagliatelle and even though I am not a big pasta fan, I am really loving the pasta here in Puglia – it is cooked perfectly aldente and like the bread has this lovely almost chewy texture in the nicest possible way – chewy but with a bounce – yet not tough or dry. Vern said his tortellini were just about the best he has every had. Very reasonably priced too.

Very happy tummies we wandered a bit more and then set off for Alberobello, which is famous for its Trulli houses. These white washed, stone cone shaped roofed homes date back to the 14th century and are typical for this region only. Alberobello is also in the same valley and a scenic 20 minute drive from Cisternino. The view along the way had a lot of these stone buildings in the paddocks amongst grape vines or olive trees. There is a lot more greenery and cultivation of the soil which is a brick brown colour – interspersed with bone coloured rocks. There are low biscuit coloured stone walls or fences lining the roads and shaping small square paddocks along gentle rolling hills. They seem to use the rocks from the paddocks to make these fences. Still not any livestock that we have seen – although they must have them somewhere for all the meat dishes and prosciutto consumed!

Google got us close to the main display of homes and we saw a car park at a point where we could get no closer so we entered. It looked comically out of place as there was fake grass mat lining an olive tree field. I commented to Vern jokingly that it was bound to be expensive as it was so flash – I was right – €6 which is the worst we have had to pay. No worries it was clean and shady, but I did see some Italians only had over €4 just after us. I think one fee for Europeans, and one for Italians – mmmm I really don’t like this attitude but where there is nothing you can do about it, you just shrug it off.

The first surprise about the Trulli was how many streets of them there were – like a little village. I thought there were say about 20, on about 3 or 4 streets from research which clearly was lacking in detail. Second surprise how cute, neat and pretty the village is – very clean and lots of flowers and bright shops with interesting crafts and souvenirs. We spent more time than we thought we would enjoying walking up and down discovering winding little lanes – feeling like we may see hobbits pop out or Gandalf appear! We did see one shop owner that looked just like Salvador Dali….

Coffee time had come around and I spied a patisserie with local specialties so we went in and chose a pear cheesecake and special little pastry pie with custard and quince. Nommy nom nom award for both – especially the little pie which was fresh out of the oven with crisp thin pastry and a not too sweet filling. €8 for two coffee and the cakes – pretty cheap. The waitress was having a busy day and got some orders muddled but then gave me a complimentary ‘iced coffee with almond’ – another local thing. Wow, these we both could develop a taste for as well. Basically an espresso over ice, and on bottom an almond syrup. I will try and hunt some of that down and bring it home!

The sun was just starting to get low as we made our way back down to the coast, shining blazing orange gold before disappearing behind the hills leaving us a blue hour. Being very easterly here there are no sunsets on the beach side, but it was still a beautiful end to a fabulous day of discovery. We felt we had such a great eating day that we only needed a picnic dinner so went to the supermarket to get some supplies on the way home.

Those that know my blogs may chuckle at our definition of picnic – but I say if you are going to do something do it properly. We also love getting local at supermarkets and watch what other housewives do and take note. So our healthy picnic is as pictured with the best quality ham, prosciutto, delicious cherry tomatoes, crunchy low acid cucumber, tender sprouts and radicchio lettuce, mozzarella, and Gorgonzola and mascarpone cheese (only €1.64 for a huge slab). It was a feast fit for royalty and only cost us about €20 and we still have left overs. We washed it down with the very nice Rose I bought in Matera, a fitting end to a wonderful day.