Day 20, Wednesday, Galatina and Gallipoli

Today was our last full day of touring.  The weather remained perfect and the sites we visited were fascinating, unique, and lovely.  We headed southwest from Lecce to our first stop in Galatina. There we visited the Church of Santa Caterina, built in the 13th century.  

                             Detail of archway of the Church of Santa Caterina

It is filled with frescoes that have been restored.  Beneath this layer, one can see earlier frescoes and some "cartoons" or sketches that were used to create the frescoes.  The church was simply amazing, but unfortunately photographs were not permitted.  We went outside to the covered cloister area where I was able to shoot a few quick photos.

Next stop was Gallipoli - of course, the Italian seaside city, not the Turkish one of the same name. Gallipoli, meaning "beautiful city," certainly lives up to its name. We start in the fish market where all sorts of fish are being sold, tour an underground olive oil press, and stroll through the old city to the beautiful harbor area.  

Lunch is at another beautiful farmhouse that is completely restored and quite beautiful.  

Unfortunately, after lunch we have to bid farewell to our friends Sheila and Peter Philippsohn who have to leave half a day early in order to make connections to their home in Australia. Hopefully we will all be together again next September at a Melton Kallah.

Even though we walked a lot in the morning, I decide to try the afternoon walk to another family member's house on the same huge farm.  Here we find all sorts of plants from around the world, greenhouse areas filled with cacti and succulents, and beautiful gardens.  It is called La Cutura Botanical Gardens. What makes this trip possible for me is that I know Enzo, our wonderful driver, will pick me up along the road if my knees and back are too sore to walk the entire distance.  Fortunately, I do make it, and still have enough strength to enjoy the botanical wonders.  

Tonight will be our farewell dinner and tomorrow we begin the journey home.  Thursday we drive to Brindisi and then fly to Milan.  On Friday we fly from Milan to Newark and then back to Rochester.  This will be my last post.  Classic Journey has turned out to be a fantastic company to travel with - one I highly recommend.  I truly feel as if I have been on vacation this past week, even though I've walked more than I ever thought possible.  As always, it will be good to be home.

Day 19, Lecce and Otranto

What a perfectly lovely day in Otranto and the surrounding area.  First, the weather was perfect - bluest of blue skies and temperatures in the high 60's and low 70's.  Otranto, another town I had never heard of, turned out to be chock full of surprises, from the gorgeous seaside promenade to the old fortifications in the city.  

     

And the best part - the mosaic floor of the cathedral, Duomo di Otranto.  The mosaic was completed between 1163 and 1165 by a local priest and depicts the tree of life.  

Inside the Duomo are glass cases containing 800 skulls and other bones of the "Martyrs of Otranto." These people were killed when the Turks invaded and demanded that the people convert to Islam.  These 800 refused and were beheaded.  Later they were beatified by the Church.  These cases left me unsettled and uneasy - but more about them later.

After a lovely two hour walk (with lots of stops) we rode out into the countryside where the guys completed a long walk on rocky, uneven ground to a watch tower.  Sheila, Joyce, and I rested, talked, and solved all the problems of the world yet again.  Next we went to a beautiful agriturismo for lunch.  This was the antithesis of yesterday's lunch.  The fully restored buildings have been turned into a lovely B & B.  The restaurant building is light and airy, filled with interesting art.  The meal was divine!!!!  This is truly the eating tour of Apulia.  We were so sated that we never ate dinner when we returned to Lecce.

We ended the day by taking an extra evening tour of what is believed to the location of the old synagogue of Lecce. Ido, our fabulous guide, helped us to arrange this tour.  It turned out to be over 2 hours long (way, way too long) and included most of the ancient sites in Lecce, including the Roman amphitheater, Roman theater, and a building in which a family found rooms from the Knights Templar.  The underground synagogue portion of the tour was a huge disappointment. The guide (who made us appreciate Ido's skills even more) pointed out where they believed an ancient Mikvah had been and showed us a picture of stone carved with Hebrew that has since been removed.  So, in fact, there is really nothing to see and the synagogue is just conjecture.  It is known that Jews lived in Lecce in ancient times and the guide told us that there were many Jews among the Martyrs of Lecce.  I had commented to Eric when viewing the Martyr's skulls that the cases reminded me of Auschwitz.  Now I had even queasier feelings about them.

In complete exhaustion, we were asleep by 9 PM.

Day 18, Monday, Alberobello and Lecce

Today was a day of mostly travel, making our way from Matera to Lecce with stops in Alberobello and a walled farm (Masseria Fortificata) for lunch.  First stop was in Alberobello where the houses have special roofs in cone shapes made from thousands of pieces of limestones. These houses are designed after the ancient "trulli" stone huts that farmers used when they were working in the field.   It is a unique place - almost a fairy tale village, except for the modern antennas, electric wires, and dozens of touristy trinket shops.  The weather is partly cloudy with perfect temperatures in the high 60's and it is a most pleasant hour or so walk through "Trulli-land." 

    An original Trullo next to a olive grove. 

Next we stop at the Masseria for lunch - a very, very strange place.  We are served a typical, heavy, 5-6 course lunch in a room where the ancient olive presses are kept.  The farm is strange, the room is strange, and the people are fairly strange, too.  The farm is about 400 years old and was carefully restored by an former wealthy family.  Here's where the story gets lost in translation.  I believe the wealthy man doing the restoration ran out of money, the B & B was never finished, the government took over the place (maybe - I never quite understood this part), and now it houses refugees from Africa, Syria, and other lands for 3 months at a time.  The refugees are all men who loll around the property with nothing to do.  It is unnerving and weird.  The guys all go for a walk in the ancient olive tree orchards where some of the trees are over 100 years old.  The women stay inside and talk about art and creativity.  

Finally we complete the drive to Lecce where we check into our lovely hotel in the old city and rest up before going out for a light bite before retiring.  Lecce is called the "Florence of the South," so we look forward to exploring it tomorrow.

Day 17, Sunday, Matera

We are staying in the loveliest of hotels in Matera.  It was once the home of a rich person of Matera that has since been converted to a 5 star hotel.  It is like a castle, with vaulted ceilings in every room, winding corridors that twist and turn, and every amenity that you could ever want.  I don't know why I've never heard of Matera, since it is one of the most unique places I've ever been.  It is built into the side of a cliff and spans two sides of a canyon.  One side of the canyon is wild and has a few caves remaining where people once lived; the other side holds the old city of Matera.  The people lived here in cave-like homes carved into the limestone rock since Paleolithic time.  It is the oldest, continuing city in the world.  Once a wonder to behold, by the 1950's it had become "Italy's shame."  Maleria, disease, poor sanitation, and overcrowding had turned these dwellings into something terrible, with animals and people sharing the same living space without any sewerage.  

In 1952, the Gaspere Law forced the relocation of approximately 15,000 people living in the two Sassi (or cliff dwelling districts) of Matera to relocate to new government housing, leaving the cave-dwellings as empty shells.  These were mostly poor people and farmers who could not take their animals or way of life with them.  Slowly the dwellings are being fixed up and turned into charming hotels, cafes and homes - this time for the wealthy.  

We begin the morning by taking a long walk up and down the hills of the old city side of the canyon.  The views are spectacular and the photo opportunites are endless.  We walked (I should really say climbed) in the morning for about 2 hours going slowly and stopping often to shoot pictures.  Amazingly, I had no trouble doing it, but I will have sore knees later today.  Here are some of my shots. 

Marcia, Eric, Victor, Joyce, Sheila, & Peter

             Sea shells in the limestone 

This afternoon we walk on the other side of the canyon (the wild side).  We climb slowly up the hill until we reach the top of the cliff and capture the view as the sun is setting. Here are pictures from the wild side of the canyon looking back at the old city.

                      Peter and Sheila

               Marcia and Eric

Dinner tonight is in one of Matera's best restaurants, so it will be another eating extravaganza.

Day 16, Saturday, Altamura and Matera

What a difference in pace between the two portions of our trip.  Our Melton Seminar was a fabulous learning experience - one in which we engaged with a lot of Italian educators and historians.  We traced the history of Jews in Italy from the 2nd century through to modern times and learned so, so much.  But the pace was grueling, which we knew from previous Melton Seminars.  Out the door by 7:30 or 8:00 AM every day and finishing as late as 10 PM on some nights.  In addition, the walking was at much too fast a pace for me.  The guide, Marina, finally slowed down toward the end of the trip when everyone else started to complain, but we were physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted by the end of the Seminar.  This is not a complaint - we expect Melton Seminars to leave us this way and, in fact, the Seminars attract people who want this "total package" of experience.  

Now we are on VACATION!  Despite the write-up by Classic Journeys of a "walking tour" of Apulia (the English version of Puglia), our guide, Ido, describes it as an "eating tour" of Apulia.  Yes, there is walking, but it is at our pace and generally the emphasis is on culture, people, history, and, of course, food.  The earliest we have started our touring day is 9:15 and we can stop and have coffee whenever we are too tired to go on.

Today we traveled by van from Bari to Altamura, site of a working farm which we toured.

       

       

A family (mother, father, and six children) own the farm and run a B & B, as well as giving cooking lessons and tours. They make their own cheese there - pecorino, ricotta, and mozarella and we had a tour of the cheese making facility.  

                            

                                            Scamorza cheese on aging rack

                            

                                            Pecorino cheese on aging rack

                                  

                            

                         The oldest son shows us a huge wheel of aged pecorino.

We went to the large country kitchen and met the mother, Maria, who promptly put us to work making our lunch.  We noshed on pecorino cheese and homemade wine while we took orders from Maria on how to chop, grate, mix, and create the specialties her grandmother had taught her. When we started, I noticed a pitcher of extra virgin olive oil on the counter that was filled with at least a liter of oil.  By the time we finished making the dozen or so dishes for lunch, the pitcher was empty!  

                              

                                         Maria shows us how to chop vegetables.

                               

                                       The kitchen hearth with peppers hung to dry

                                

                                        Peter uses a Foley mill to prepare dessert

                                

                           Sheila helps Peter, while Eric watches Joyce chop vegetables

                                

                                      Yes, Eric, you do, indeed need to mix this up!

                                

                      Eric mixes up the batter with surgical skill and great concentration.

                                

                       Victor watches as Maria demonstrates how to make Focaccia bread.

                                

                          Victor attempts to copy Maria's instructions on potato slicing

                                

                                                   Sheila adds eggs to a dish

While the focaccia, main dish, and dessert were baking, we went for a stroll around the farm to see the cypress trees, olive orchards, sheep, and pigs.  Around 1:30 we sat down to the most heavenly of meals - course after course after course.  For me the highlight dish was the homemade orecchiette pasta with a sauce of homegrown cherry tomatos, oregano, salt, and olive oil.  

                                 

                     Our tour leader, Ido, displays a tray of homemade orecchiette pasta

Every ingredient was fresh from the farm.  I know the Mediterranean diet is a healthy one, but I've never had so much cheese, salt, and olive oil in my life.  The cooking lesson was fabulous - even if Maria spoke no English and we spoke no Italian.  Pantomime, laughter, and gesture was all we needed to make it a success. I hope to try to imitate some of the cooking methods she used when I return home (albeit with less oil!). One dish that I can adapt was an eggplant "roll" that was similar to an eggroll.  Before we arrived she had thinly sliced egglplant that she dipped in egg, salt, and flour, then quickly fried in oil (think Pam!). 

                             

We then placed mozzarella cheese, herbs, and some sort of root vegetable sliced into very thin strips on top of each eggplant "pancake" and rolled them up. They were placed in a heavy frying pan, dotted with butter, and sprinkled with pecorino cheese.  With a lid on top, Maria warmed them just before serving.  Divine!

                                 

We left Altmura with full bellies and headed in the van for Matera, a unique, historic city.  Amazingly, none of the six of us had ever heard of Matera, but it is designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site.  I was so exhausted that I skipped dinner and was asleep by 7:30, which was really 6:30 since we turned the clocks back. I slept soundly until the next morning!