So what can top a month in Croatia? A month in Italy perhaps?  Although we had been to Tuscany before, spending Easter in Florence a few years ago, nothing prepared us for the feast that is the history, scenery and gastronomy of Italia.  The time flew – it honestly felt like two weeks and not surprisingly, it will have to be written up over a few blogs…..

Our ferry from Dubrovnik took us into Bari on the south east coast of Italy, chased all the way (but not caught) by a storm.  After navigating the bonkers traffic in the centre of town we headed straight to a campsite for the night.  Rising early we took a chance and just out of curiosity dropped into a campervan dealer five minutes from the campsite to ask about fixing the awning we lost in the storm in Umag (see blown away by croatia post).  Expecting a similar response to that we received in Croatia, we were slightly flabbergasted to be told that it could be fixed in four days.  Mikele said ‘You go off, enjoy the weekend and come back on Tuesday when the new one will arrive and we’ll fit it in an hour’.  So we did…..

We headed south to Alberabello in Puglia, home of the trulli houses – small quaint round stone buildings with conical roofs, and often decorated with white symbols of Christianity.  The story goes that originally these buildings were constructed without mortar in the 18^th and 19^th century to avoid paying property tax on permanent dwellings (although there are other theories).  In Alberabello alone there are thousands of these sweet little buildings cascading down the east and west hills of the valley, and walking around is a bit like having drunk Alice’s ‘drink me’ potion where everything is somewhat out of proportion and slightly fairy-tale like.   What was particularly lovely was that while Alberabello is the trulli capital, their popularity throughout the years means that they are widespread in this area of Puglia, ranging from simple tumble down agricultural buildings to modern multi-coned trulli houses which are keeping this lovely tradition well and trulli alive (see what I did there – huh huh?).   A gorgeous region to drive through and one of those places that has you going ‘how were we unaware this existed?’

Our accommodation in Alberabello was to be our first Italian ‘sosta camper’ – dedicated simple overnight parking for motorhomes – just like the camperstops.  Decidedly good value, these parks often do not allow outdoor living, but do provide electricity, water and occasionally added benefits -some of our later sosta’s were agritourism based and provided us with restaurants or farm shops full of local delicious products.  Alberabello is a super sosta, right in the middle of town under olive trees – definitely worth seeking out if you are travelling by motorhome in Puglia.  We headed down to town that evening to see an International Cultural Festival.  After a local man of import listened to himself speak for far too long, we sat through an hour and a half of (in Will’s words) ‘unique and once in a lifetime – hopefully’  folk dancing and singing.

There are some gorgeous historic hilltop towns in the area as well – Locotorondo, Martina Franco and Cisternino among others.  A mid-morning café stop in Martina Franca (where Will drank a slightly odd green  kiwi/apple smoothie) brought with it the treat of watching the arrival of a wedding party at Basilica di San Martino – the 17^th century flamboyance of the baroque façade balanced out by the lacy elegance of the beautiful bride.   Fresh bread and pastries bought, we wandered the alleys back to the van and headed west to Matera.

After the storybook appeal of Alberabello, the abandoned depravation of the sassi houses in Matera were quite a shock.  Set in the Gravina di Matera ravine, these cave dwellings are actually troglodyte in heritage – an immense 9000 years ago – but were inhabited until as recently as the 1950’s (and some remain inhabited today).  Obviously the structures have changed considerably over the millennia, but in essence, these remain cavers, with house frontages carved into the rock, and stacked on top of each other following the slope.  The sassi were where the poorest people resided, rife with disease and so shamed were the wealthier townfolk that as they developed their ‘new town’, they built it with its back to the sassi.  In the 1950’s it all got too much for the government and 15,000 people were rehoused into social housing, leaving the sassi abandoned.  Although a number of the houses have been redeveloped into infant tourism offerings, and a major regeneration is now underway as part of the UNESCO protection programme and ahead of being the City of Culture in 2019, there remains a desolate and rather  somber atmosphere.

The temperature gauges in town showed 38° the afternoon we were exploring this incredible place and even with ice creams and cold drinks we were all wilting and we welcomed our next sosta which was on a farm with a delightful well priced farm restaurant focused on meat, meat and more meat.  We had a day of chores whilst there and apart from some kite throwing in a fallow field, William hardly left the hammock the whole day.

Leaving Matera we back tracked to Bari with the excitement of getting the awning fixed ahead of us.  So keen were we that we were at the dealers as soon as they opened and of course the awning didn’t arrive until late afternoon.  After a day discovering the absolute dearth of things to do in Bari we received a call to say the awning was in but would be fitted the next morning.  We settled for the night in the same campsite as before and the next morning again arrived bright and early at the dealers.  An hour later we drove away with our bight shiny new awning intact and our bright shiny faces beaming!  A huge thank you to Mikele and Gina at Hilton Sud for all your help!

We left Bari behind us and headed across Italy to the West Coast…to start exploring the Greek and Roman history of Italy.  All that to come in the next blog…..