We have arrived in Puglia for our seven day holiday in southern Italy and we are staying in a rather luxurious Masseria, near Fasana. It is a great place and an ideal location for exploring the main attractions of Puglia. Yesterday, after a seafood lunch at the beach, we were delighted to discover the ‘white town’ of Ostuni, a pretty place with lots of whitewashed buildings set on top a hill and with a maze of alleyways waiting to be explored.
Today’s excursion was to the pretty town of Alberoberro where we found a high concentration of trulli- these are circular, conical roofed, white-washed houses. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the limestone trulli date from the 14th century, today many have been modernised and some are now shops or restaurants. It is really an enchanting place to visit and attracts many tourists.
We then travelled through the Valley d’Itria with its vineyards and olive groves on to Martina de Franca and then Cisternino, both towns are probably vibrant and interesting but in the afternoon – siesta time both were closed up with all the shutters down. . Disappointingly, that included the restaurants, which don’t open to at least 7pm – we need to readjust to the Italian clock and make sure we plan to eat at the right time!! Lesson learnt..
Nevertheless, we wandered the streets, imagining them in all their glory because both had superb architecture and interesting layouts, vowing to come back another day.