Our 'Mark of Zoro Ride' through Puglia continued today as we started to work our way south east. To do this we had to ride through a few UNESCO world heritage sites and endless ancient olive groves with occasional glimpses of the Adriatic sea.
It was rough.
Ok, smug comments are done. It was a really good day. Beautiful country with the said olive groves interspersed with vineyards, and the towns and villages, particularly the ancient centers, are everything the postcards promise. We did have a bit of a headwind and a reasonable amount of climbing today, but otherwise it was great cycling. For the first time since leaving Rome we also saw a number of roadies. It helped that it was Saturday but it also figures that this is a more populated area and is quite thick with weekenders and 'European expats'. Both K and I noticed that what looks like rural countryside on the maps is actually reasonably built out with acreages, for want of a Italian term.
We rode into, or up to, Alberobello just after noon and found the Trulli section. This is what gives Alberobello UNESCO status, and it is quite beautiful. At the same time however, it's fallen to the same pressures every other accessible 'amazing' place on the planet has, and in the process has become less 'amazing' . Since this is November (have I mentioned that before?) it was quite manageable but the thought of being here in August .... oh no.
If you want to see Trulli, get on your bike and ride any back / side road around here. They are everywhere, and being used for everything from housing farm tools to foreign tourists!
We hit Ostuni well before the sun set, and good thing too! We booked a hotel in the 'old center' and just like every other town in southern Italy, your GPS gives you a general reference as to where your accommodation really is. Get into that general area and then start to hunt and peck to find the real thing. We did, and luckily, in fairly quick order found our hotel. Turns out there is another cycle touring group staying here too, we saw their bikes, not them. Another stroke of serendipity, one of the closest restaurants to us gets a thumbs up from Bibendum. We decided to go there, and the maps suggested it was within 200 m from us. Four turns down narrow streets, a couple of staircases, and we didn't have a clue where we were ... or where the restaurant was. Perseverance pays off though. Two more turns and one staircase and we stumbled into where we wanted to be.
Great dinner, and the breadcrumb trail we left made the return journey much quicker.
Tomorrow we head to the east coast, with the forward plan to ride the coast to the tip of the heel and then come back north through Otranto with a spectacular finish in Lecce! the only wrinkle in the plan is that the weather forecast shows a very nasty storm arriving Tuesday through Wednesday (+25 mm rain and ~50 km/hr winds). We are trying to arrange things so that we are holed up somewhere comfortable for those days! However, that's a few days off ... which is a long time in cycle tour time.
Song of the Day, Clap Hands by Tom Waits. As we were walking through Alberobello past yet another trinket / souvenir shop, the wind blew some wooden chimes (that's Vietnam not Italy!!!) that were out for sale. The sound they made instantly triggered this song ... have a listen. The big difference though, is that Tom apparently used the bathroom sink pipes in his Greenwich village flat in this song, not some bourgeois wooden chimes!
Lyle McLeodTo Karin KaarsooYou are inferring that I was referencing your sister and not the adjacent old olive tree trunk? Perhaps you need to rethink who is thinking mean thoughts. It certainly wasn’t me 🧐 Reply to this comment 5 years ago
finally into Alberobello .. the Disney Land of Trulli ... you have to work hard to get a picture like this without anybody else posing for selfies ... even in November! It is very beautiful and historically interesting so I can see why its a UNESCO site.
Kirsten thought that garden gnomes would feel very much at home here. We didn't bring any with us (surprised?) but we do have our little mascots who travel with us, stuffed in a small outside mesh pocket on our front bags, rain or shine. So Super Mom and Gordon G. Moneymaker got to check this out too! We picked these guys up over 10 years ago on a bike trip with the kids, Alison got Voodoo Girl and Callum was the Devil Baby, his sister insisted on that. I believe this is the first time we've used them in a pic.
