Dreaming In Italian

Now the last part of the real exploration part of the trip. I left the wonderful B and B near Mesagne (two posts back) and headed to the remaining Servas host near Lecce. I have heard that Lecce is a great place but really didn’t get much of a sense of it. Why you might ask? Well, when I got up that morning my right contact lens was very uncomfortable. Of course I had brought spares and had used one of them. When I opened the package for the spare, it was torn – useless. So by the time I arrived at the house of Cecilia and Stefano I was really suffering. So I headed into Lecce to find an ottica (eyeglasses shop). I arrived at around 2:00 PM only to find that virtually everything that didn’t involve food and drink was closed from 1:00 to at least 4:00. In fact the ottica didn’t open until 4:30 and grocers didn’t open until 6:00. I was frankly not in the mood for walking around so I found a nice bar near the ottica that had magazines to read and nursed a beer and read a magazine article about the future mayor of New York, de Blasio. As an italian-american he was front page news. I bought the lens and then went looking for stuff to take back to the hosts for dinner. I bought a couple of bottles of wine, various veggies that looked good and some pastries. The next challenge was finding their place in the dark.

There was really no problem finding the small paved road but I knew that their road was just dirt and gravel and was not named on either Google or Apple maps. To add to the problem, there is poor cell phone service (at least for Vodafone) in the area so attempts to call were not very useful. I tried a number of streets only to find after a 50  meters or so that it was not the right one and had to back up since there was nowhere to turn around. I was parked outside a little factory trying to call Cecilia. A barking guard dog got the attention of a guy who came out to investigate. Ah, great. I went over and asked. He must have been local because he was washing his car and playing a video game on his cell phone. In any case he was very nice but had no idea which road it was. Of course I finally found the road eventually but did pretty much use up my entire vocabulary of curses in the process.

Cecilia and Stefano were an interesting couple. I would probably best describe them as Italian hippies – and not in a pejorative way. She’s an artist and actress and he’s a professional musician and deejay. They have a young, very cute daughter,Lisa, who makes up stories about everything. One morning at breakfast she went through her alphabet book (in English) and had a little story for every page.  They live in a house that clearly predates electricity at least and perhaps indoor plumbing as well. Cecilia told me that it was originally 3 parts. One part that has the kitchen and bathrooms and dining area was once the living area. The central part was a tobacco drying barn and the remaining 3^rd at the other end was a barn space for young animals, lambs, piglets etc. It’s really quite a dramatic space and evidence of Celilia’s and Stafano’s artistic talents are everywhere. The final evening there I was going through all of the music on my laptop and Stefano knew and probably had almost all of the music that I had. He showed me his studio which I decided to call the museum of music since he has such a vast collection of not only CDs but LPs as well. When I left the next day he gave me a couple of CDs that his band has made. He wrote all of the songs (in English) and sings as well as plays a number of instruments. BTW his stage name is Tobia. Here’s a song with a video – I’ll bet Cecilia was involved.

So I never did make it back to Lecce. Frankly I was pretty tired of cities, my feet were beginning to wear out. I just wanted a low-key day. Cecilia suggested that I go to Otranto. It is the easternmost Italian city on the Adriatic coast and as far south as I would go on this trip. The weather was pleasant, there was, of course, the lovely history center inside an old fort, there were park benches to sit on and pass the time and there was a great meal. That was enough for me. One of the principle attractions for many is the cathedral. The entire floor is a mosaic. It really was impressive. The photos really don’t do it justice.  The next day I was to start the two day trek back to Bologna.

After leaving Giulianova I had not realized how far it was to Puglia. OMG, it’s at least 4 hours to drive to Fasano where I was to stay with another Servas host. I left at 7:30 in the morning and drove at the speed limit (130 km/hour – about 80 mph) to try to reach the destination by noon. Unfortunately the stupid cigarette lighter USB adapter that I paid 20 euros for ceased to work so I didn’t want to use the navigation of Google maps much because it sucks down the battery. There was really only one hitch – I missed the proper autostrada exit and had to backtrack, losing ½ hour. In any case I reactivated the navigatore (navigator) when I entered Fasano to find the house of Damiano, Maria and the 3 kids Irena (6), Marta (4 ½) and Lorenzo (I think about 2) not to mention that Maria is quite pregnant. They were terrific hosts. They fed me lunch after I arrived and in the early evening I went shopping with Damiano and bought some ingredients for rosotto with radicchio and tomatoes which I prepared for dinner with Damiano, Maria and two friends whose names I promptly forgot. The risotto turned out well although I wasn’t sure how much I needed to fix so the portions were a little small. Fortunately I’d also bought some stuff for antipasto and dessert plus two bottles of wine so it wasn’t a disaster. Damiano is a teacher and, as you might imagine, Maria did not work – pretty difficult with 3 small children. Their house is stand-alone (about the only one that I had stayed in) and had been built along with a bunch of others in a field that was once full of VERY old olive trees. They had one in their backyard. Damiano said that it’s probably, oh, 5 or 6 centuries old.

While I was there I spent one day doing to two nearby towns; Monopoli and Polignano a Mare. Monopoli was quite interesting. It’s an old port town and the area around the port is really the historic center with a lot of narrow crooked streets. I wish I had taken more pictures because it’s hard to describe how narrow and crooked, including right angles and dead ends, the streets are. Take a look at that area with Google Maps if you’re interested. It’s easy to get lost which makes the map function in the iPhone VERY useful.

After that I went on to Polignano a Mare. I parked the car near a piazza and noted a bunch of older guys who had brought out chairs and were sitting around talking. It’s so easy to socialize in Italy. I wish it were so easy in the states. I had seen an article in the New York Times some time back and wanted to see it for myself. There’s an inlet there that is very dramatic. Obviously the water was still quite warm at the end of October because several people were swimming. In walking around I happened upon a statue of Domenico Modugno who wrote and sang the song, “Volare” with which I’m sure everyone is familiar. He was born and grew up in Polignano. Of course I saw the inlet  and I took WAY too many photos because it was so dramatic and beautiful. As you can see, I ate well too.

Did anyone notice the out of orderness?

Leaving Fasano, I knew that Alberobello was not far away and that Ostuni was on the way to my next night’s stay. So I headed for Alberobello. One would think that such a tourist attraction as Alberobello would have signs all along the highway. But no, hardly a hint of where it might be. Added to this was the fact that the UBS port for the car had ceased to work and I was low on gas. After getting lost a couple of times I returned to Fasano and filled the car with gas, checked the map carefully and headed to Alberobello. Alberobello is famous for a veritable city of trulli, those curous stone houses build only of stones stacked one upon another. I wanted to see it. I found during the drive (only got lost once and not badly) that there were, in fact, trulli all over the place. Still, I pressed on. As luck would have it, just as I entered the town I saw a small computer store and with even more luck there was also a parking space right in front. I went in and told them that “questo pezzo di merde e’ gia rotto” (this piece of shit is already broken). They had a replacement and let me try it to make sure it wasn’t something in the car. Not only that but  it cost half what I had paid before and worked for the rest of the trip. So I saw the trulli. A bit of a tourist trap one might say. Also as far as I’m concerned if you’ve seen one trullo you’ve seen them all.

Next stop: Ostuni. It bills itself as “la citta’ bianca”. The white city. I’m not sure why since it certainly was not all white. Naturally it has a centro storico that was interesting (and hilly) which was whiter than the rest of the town. By chance I stopped a little bar that was near the centro. It was carved out of the rock and the barrista told me that it had been a frantoio (olive oil processing room) for the house. He was quite friendly and recommended places to eat – always very important.

After leaving Ostuni I pressed on to the B and B that I had found via AirBnB: “Finestre fra gli Ulivi”. It was probably the best place other than Servas hosts that I’d stayed to date. It was a little way outside of Mesagne. As usual not that easy to find but worth the effort. Marcella, the proprietor, was very welcoming. The room was very nice and the setting was magnificent. Surrounded by old olive trees and with a covered terrace (there’s an italian word for it but I’ve forgotten what it was) for breakfast. When I arrived I was welcomed with a coffee. She had a couple of sons that were home temporarily and a nephew (10) who was definitely not shy and liked to talk. Marcella recommended a nice restaurant in  Mesagne and, as usual, I ate well. She warned me to only order one thing at a time because I might not be able to finish it. So I started with the antipasto. This seems to be common in the south. There’s not really a selection. So the antipasto came, first 3 dishes, then more, and then more again. Thirteen items in total. Incredible. I wasn’t really hungry after that but wanted to try at least a pasta so I ordered a small order, probably half, and then happily waddled out and headed back to Marcella’s place. I really didn’t see much of Mesagne other than the centro storico where the restaurant was located. That part was very attractive, as the centri storici generally are. The breakfast part of the BnB was quite something. Marcella had all kinds of stuff including some kind of bread (frisa) that’s kind of like a bagel that has been sliced in half and baked again. At that point it’s practically inedible but she showed me how to do it. You soak it briefly in a little water. Then she cut cherry tomatoes in half and squeezed them over the bread and placed he tomatoes on it. She added a little salt, a little dried oregano and some olive oil and, my, was it tasty.

When I go back to Puglia I’d really like to go stay there for maybe a week. Highly recommended.

I see that I got things a little out of order here. Does it matter? I think not.

After leaving Meg’s place, I decided to go up into the mountains of Abruzzo. There is a major national park there, the Gran Sasso. Very dramatic mountains, somewhat reminiscent of the rockies. I thought that it would be interesting to stop at a small town just short of L’Aguila (the capital of Abruzzo) named Assergi. It was indeed a tiny little town. There was a little road there that seemed to ascend into the town so I took it. It quickly began to narrow and I thought, uh oh, I don’t like the looks of this. A little further on I came to a wall! Oops!! Fortunately there was a entry into the two, just large enough to get the nose of the car into it. So with a bunch of to and froing I was able to turn around and descend the street. Whew. The whole time, as I silently cursed (well, not always silently) I was afraid that some other idiot like me would take the same road. Anyway, I parked the car and made a little passeggiata (stroll) through the town. This was about the smallest yet and I saw several buildings that were supported by wood beams. After seeing the second or third one I realized that they must have been damaged by an earthquake. There was no place to eat so I continued on to L’Aguila.

I parked the car just outside of the centro storico of L’Aguila and walked in. What a shock. Almost every building in sight had been badly damaged in an earthquake that occurred in 2009. In addition to the profound property damage 297 people died in the quake. There were workmen everywhere working to fix things but it is clearly going to take years of effort to get things back into shape. I stopped at a bar and talked to the barrista. He said, as I presumed, that the economy crumbled along with the buildings in the quake and only in the last few months when they started all of the repairs things were starting to improve because of all of the guys working on the buildings. Part of the problem is that almost all of the stores in the center, which is typically the prime shopping area, were forced to move out of the center which obviously exacerbated the problem. It was sad to see and I wish them good fortune in their future.

Despite all of the damage, the barrista directed me to a nearby restaurant where I ate well. I met the chef who had traveled a lot in the American west; California, Oregon, Washington State and even Alaska. He showed me some photos of his travels and as always it’s pleasant to have a conversation in Italian.