More Road Tripping Around Puglia

Continuing our rental car road trip around Puglia, after lunch in Putignano we didn't have any concrete plans. Checking the weather and some driving times, we decided to head northeast to the Adriatic coast. It was about a 35 minute drive to our first stop, the Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Egnazia. This is a surprisingly large museum, but is not very popular (at least not on the day we visited) - we were the only patrons. The museum had a nice introductory video that was only in Italian. No problem with modern technology - David stood by the speaker and had his phone live translate into English! We spent some time exploring exhibits about the ancient city of Egnazia, which was occupied from the 16th century BCE until around the 13th century CE. Outside the museum was the necropolis, where visitors are able to enter a few tombs. There's also archeological remains of the city itself nearby, but it was closed to visitors on the day we visited.

Leaving the museum we made a quick stop at the coast to take in some views of the sea. This area has a number of beaches and small resorts that are probably popular in summer, but in winter it was very quiet. We enjoyed watching the surf on the rocks for a while, then went to our car to drive back to Alberobello. On the way back we got stopped at some train tracks for about 20 minutes while a couple of passenger trains passed. Luckily there was a local waiting there in her car too, otherwise we might have turned around and tried to find another crossing since we weren't sure how long it would be closed.

Scenic drive through old stone walls and groves of trees.

Coming over the top of a hill we got a panoramic view of the Adriatic Sea.

David translating the video on his phone.

Remnants of a mosaic.

The museum was really well organized and looked like it was recently updated.

Overview of the necropolis.

Inside a tomb, with some wall decorations still visible.

Walking down into the tomb.

A lot of the area looked like this - pleasant farms with twisted olive trees.

David on the coast.

There's our car! Not much traffic around these parts.

Another bucolic view. Love those walls and olive trees.

Back in Alberobello we walked around a bit - it was much quieter than the previous day, since it wasn't a holiday. The town is quite charming at night with all of the lovely Christmas lights. We had dinner at Casa Nova, which was in the barrel-vaulted basement of an old building. It's definitely a touristy spot, but the food was good and the space was unique. We ordered a regional sampler plate to get a taste of some local foods.

The streets were much less busy than during the holiday.

A nutcracker in the rain.

David enjoying the atmosphere.

Did we mention Alberobello at Christmas is adorable?

The regional sampler plate. Can you guess all of the foods?

More orecchiette and some olive gnocchi.

Could you imagine an American restaurant bringing out a giant knife on a board?

The next morning, we left Alberobello in our rental car heading back to Bari to catch a train to Rome. On the way, we stopped in the city of Conversano, about a 30 minute drive away. We didn't spend too much time here, but it was a cute little town. We wandered around the historic center, which was pretty quiet since it was still morning. Christmas decorations were being set up around town. We walked by the city's castle, saw the inside of the 11th century cathedral, and the Monastery of San Benedetto. Exploring these little towns in Puglia with hardly anyone else around was really interesting.

Coca-cola Santa and beer reindeer.

The imposing castle on the edge of the old city.

Just a cat hiding in a castle wall.

A Christmas market - we wish we were here at night when it's open.

Yay, Christmas tree.

An impressive side door of the cathedral.

Conversano's cathedral on a quiet morning.

The inside of the cathedral.

Some old art in the cathedral.

A pretty fork in the road.

The monastery's bell tower and dome have colored tiles on top.

The inside of the monastery is small but impressive.

The morning light in the interior of the monastery's chapel.

Bye bye, Conversano!

After visiting Conversano, we drove to the Bari airport and dropped off our rental car, officially ending the "road trip" portion of our vacation. Bari has a nice train from the airport into town, so we took that straight to the main train station to await our train back to Rome.

We present proof that not all meals in Italy are great - train station pizza! Actually it was OK.

Another rainy train ride.

Next up - one more full day in Rome before we fly home.

A Trulli Great Time around Alberobello

After leaving Matera, we drove toward Alberobello, with a stop in Locorotondo. It was a pleasant drive through farmlands and past many trulli, traditional stone structures that are found throughout Puglia. We parked on the outskirts of the old city of Locorotondo, and walked into the historic center. It's a small area, but is well maintained and was full of Christmas decorations. Unfortunately, almost all of the shops and restaurants were closed, despite a lot of tourists wandering around, because of the holiday (immaculate conception day). This thwarted our plans to eat lunch in the city, but we still enjoyed walking around looking at the architecture and decorations.

Some of the first trulli we saw. These are common across the region.

A plaza in Locorotondo.

The view across the countryside from the edge of Locorotondo's historic center.

Lots of tourists for the holiday, but almost everything was closed.

The city was full of nice decorations.

Locorotondo was a bit cleaner and more maintained than other cities we visited.

After exploring a bit more, we went back to our car for the short drive to Alberobello, just ten minutes down the road. Alberobello is a UNESCO world heritage site, famous for a dense concentration of trulli (singular is "trullo"). The town is full of these adorable stone huts.

We checked in at our hotel, Trulli Holiday, which is really just a series of trulli distributed throughout a neighborhood. The man who checked us in and walked us to our trullo was reading materials on the American civil war, and was excited to ask a few random questions about Atlanta's civil war sites. 

The inside of our trullo.

The splendid view from our room's patio.

David in front of our hotel room.

We had a bit of beautiful sunny (but chilly) weather.

A street near our hotel.

The city is full of adorable nooks and crannies.

Another cute alley lined with trulli.

Our friendly neighborhood cat.

An overview of Alberobello.

Some of the trulli had more complex tops.

The main street was closed off for the holiday. The city was buzzing!

By now we were starving, since we weren't able to have lunch in Locorotondo. We wandered into the center of town and had a 3pm lunch at Largo Trevisani - we were the last customers before they closed in-between lunch and dinner. This turned out to be a delicious lunch, with very good burrata and a fantastic orecchiette dish.

Some amazing burrata.

Orecchiette with chicory.

Tomato and prosciutto on toast.

Yet more orecchiette. Yum!

After our very late lunch, we wandered around Alberobello's historic district for a while. We ducked into the Church of Sant'antonio di Padova, which is also designed to be like a trullo, then did a little shopping along the main tourist drag until dark, when all the trulli were lit up with Christmas displays. Alberobello, overall, was the most Christmassy place on the trip. On the way back towards the hotel, we grabbed some dessert cookies at Le Bonita de Central and popped into the city's main church, The Basilica di Cosma e Damiano. Right near our hotel, there was a small guided path that led to Christmas lights with audio telling a religious story. Each spot along the path had a different set of images and audio. It was a pretty thoughtful display. That evening it began to rain again, so we mostly just hung out in our hotel watching some Italian TV... too bad it's not Eurovision season.

Lots of tourists checking out the architecture.

Even the church is shaped like a trullo.

Inside the church.

Preach, random bush sign!

Paul! What did I tell you about eating random stranger's sandwiches!

A lovely holiday evening in Alberobello.

Lots of overlooks in this small town!

The main basilica is in the newer part of town.

Part of the trulli zone had Christmas story decorations accompanied by audio.

David usually has some of these random Italian cookies around Christmas with his family, so he was happy.

On Thursday morning we had breakfast at Cosi Com'era (included with our hotel stay), took a short morning walk around town, and then got in our rental car to drive to the Grotte de Castellana. When we arrived, it was pouring rain, and we were early for our timed tour, so we popped into a nearby cafe for a croissant and some hot chocolate to kill some time.

The cave tour itself was very interesting and lasted about two hours. There are specific times for tours in English, so make sure to check ahead. This cave system, the longest in Italy, was not explored until the 20th century, despite the opening being large and visible to people since pre-Roman times. Our tour guide explained that this was because people thought it was the door to hell, so no one ever bothered to go in! We were not allowed to take photos in most of the tour, but highlights included the "white cave" and the large number of "eccentric" stalactites that grow in weird directions. It was a very impressive cave and worth a visit if you have even a passing interest. 

After the tour, we drove to the nearby city of Putignano to check out the historic center and hopefully find some lunch. We walked around for a little bit, taking in the architecture and atmosphere. It was interesting, but it was much less developed than Locortondo or Alberobello. It was interesting to see the differences between these historic cities that dot the Puglian countryside. In Putignano almost nothing was open in the center, but we found some take-away pizza and focaccia which we ate, sadly, in the car.

A morning rainbow from our patio! Don't be deceived, it is going to rain a LOT today.

A cute little dog-sized trullo!

Gotta have a cappuccino at breakfast.

Daytime overview of the main trulli area.

*excited Christmas sounds*

A quiet morning in Alberobello.

Maybe there's a pot of gold in the cathedral?

Epic cave parking lot olive tree, obscured by rain..

Heading down into the cave.

It's a long way down!

The main opening from the cave into the world above. Also the only waterfall in Puglia.

Gateway to hell? Checks out I guess.

Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling and stalagmites might touch the ceiling

Putignano...no lunch to be found, again. 😢

A quiet but cute square in Putignano.

This isn't creepy at all...

Car pizza....I am smiling, but inside I am sadness.

After lunch we made a bit of an impromptu road trip around more of Puglia... but we'll save that for a separate post.