DAY SEVEN
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2024
EXPLORING RUSTIC PUGLIA
Today our itinerary consisted of visiting a few different towns in Puglia. We were staying in Ostuni, so the morning was a free morning to explore. Michele had offered an optional walking tour around the main town, which I sure would’ve been interesting, but I took the opportunity to sleep in a bit and then leisurely walk around and stop in some shops.
Took some daytime pictures of our pretty hotel first. I loved the olive tree mural across the elevators!
Walking down the streets of Ostuni it was so quaint and pretty – looked like I expected a little Italian town to look, along with a fantastic view.
Arriving at the center square, I looked around a little bit and then found my way into the cutest little ceramics and jewelry store. Puglia is known for its ceramics in particular – I thought it would be a lot of boring plates and things, but there was some great art!
I absolutely loved these ceramic hanging acrobats – wish I could’ve figured out how to get one home!
It wasn’t long until I ran into Melissa and Carina who were walking around, as well as our bus driver Vincenzo. We ended up sitting down in the center square to enjoy an Aperol spritz/wine (it was noon-ish, so… 5:00 somewhere), and I also got myself a caprese brunch, made the Apulian way with burrata.
We made our way back to the hotel together, stopping in a few tiny shops along the way, where we soon met the rest of the group to get on our bus and head out for the day.
The drive itself was so pretty, passing olive tree groves as far as you could see. Apparently Puglia produces about 40% of all of Italy’s olive oil, with an estimated 60 million olive trees (!), including some extraordinarily ancient ones more than 2000 years old.
Tragically, about a third of these trees are dying thanks to a plant from Costa Rica that was introduced to the region about 15 years ago. It carried a bug that transmits a deadly bacteria, and now 15 years later they’ve decimated the crops. Puglia is taking frantic measures to control the spread, but the risk to olive trees here as well as throughout Italy, Spain, and Greece is not looking good. The effects of this have been horrible for families who have made their living for generations selling olives and olive oil to the whole world, and the losses are in the billions and growing, particularly tragic in this already economically challenged part of Italy. I have to have hope that something can be discovered or concocted that can stop this terrible bacteria.
Our first stop was the charming town of Alberobello, arguably one of the top destinations in Puglia and for good reason: it looks like a fairy tale village because of the trulli – round buildings topped with conical roofs made of limestone tiles. When I had peeked at some pictures of where we were going I assumed that these adorable buildings were just in Alberobello, but it turns out that they’re all over the place in Puglia. Just not in the volume we were about to see.
We got off the bus and walked as group into town, admiring the quaintness. We found our way to the top of a building for a great view, then split off as a lot of the group just wanted to sit with a glass of wine and enjoy the nice day. I was more excited to walk around and see the town, as were Carina and Kristen, so the three of us walked around with Michele as he gave us a little tour.
This tree had a plaque next to it that says:
Olive tree from the hills of Jerusalem.
To the town of Alberobello, for the hospitality offered by its citizens during the racial persecutions.
The trulli…..
The symbols on the roofs…
After enjoying the unique architecture, we split off again and Kristen and I took some time walking around the cute shops in the area.
One store we stopped into had stairs to their rooftop so we went up to take in the view. I loved someone’s pink laundry blowing in the breeze!
As we were starting to walk back to the bus to meet the rest of the group, we met one shop owner who was an absolute masterful saleswoman. She managed to get us into her store, have us try multiple types of her homemade cream liquors, and walk out unexpectedly buying a whole bunch of stuff. I got this cute little jar of oregano with a trulli roof lid, plus a bottle of almondcello. Kristen went to town buying gifts and multiple bottles of the liquors. To be fair, they were delicious!
Slightly tipsy at this point, we finally made our way back to the bus, catching each other up on our days and comparing purchases.
Shannon and Melissa and their new Alberobello scarves
The next stop was the town of Locorontondo