5/2: Explore Trani and Olive Oil/Winery Visit

Our guide today led us past the water front to the old part of the city which is a maze of streets that curve around, which made it difficult for invaders to see where their objective was. She showed us 2 street signs on the same street. The lower one meant what you would find if you went to the left, the upper one to the right.  

There were piles of nets like these laying
around on the dock. They either need
repair or replacement, but they reuse
the good parts.

The fisherman on the right is working to fix his net.

This church outside the old city walls
was designed to look like the much
larger cathedral. There were always
religious pilgrims coming thru and
the church took the same name as
the cathedral and basically scammed
the pilgrims into staying there and
paying them instead of the church
they were really seeking.

Entry to the old city. The street ahead leads
to the Jewish quarter and business district.
There is also a street to the left that was
residential.

Entry to the residential area

The two filled arches were for
the tax collectors, and the Jews
in the town had been given that
job by the king.

We stopped at a ceramics shop with kitchen tools and our guide
had us guess what this was for. The top piece has 4 spaced
holes. We were clueless. Turns out it was for soaking the
bread that had been dried for preservation, and the holes
let the diner drain the excess water.

When the Jews were expelled during the Inquisition,
their temple was converted to a church and a bell
tower was added. In 2009, the church was converted
back into a Jewish temple, but the bell tower was
historic and couldn't be removed, so they replaced
the cross with a Star of David.

Because of the way the city was
laid out, the side of the cathedral
was more prominent than the front,
so this false front was created.

Initially the church was quite small and this is the second
enlarged sanctuary on the 1st level. They needed a saint
and a 19 year old who went around yelling things about
loving god was considered crazy. The bishop had the idea
that he was ill and in fact he died 2 months later and then
miracles he had caused were documented or created.
They raised him to a saint and said his name was Nicholas
At the same time, there was another better known St.
Nicolas, much older, who was the St. Nick that became
Santa. The 2 cathedrals were fairly close together and
having a saint of the same name as the famous one
allowed the church to say Yes! when asked if this one
was dedicated to St. Nicholas.

Above and below: a second, much grander story was
built. The 600 pipe organ is visible in the top and the
main sanctuary below. There was a wedding scheduled
for later in the morning so we got the pleasure of hearing
the organist practice. When Baroque style became
popular, the cathedral responded with elaborate paintings
on the pillars and ceiling, which were removed in the
modern era to restore its original simple beauty. I found
this much more inspiring than all the fancy overdecorated
churches we have found throughout the world.

i

The original door, no longer in use,
is displayed at one side in the back
of the sanctuary

We left the cathedral and hopped on our bus for our trip to the winery/olive maker. They have been continuously in business since the 1600s. We got a tour of the wine and olive oil making areas, then had lunch with wine and olive oil tasting. As in Taormina, the 'tastes' were actually 3-4 ounce glasses of wine. We tried a white, rose, and a red. The rose and red were made from the same Nero grapes, but the rose is only exposed to the skins for 2  hours vs. 2 weeks for the red. The red was also aged in barrels for several years before being released. We tried a 2019 and the 2020 will be released later this year.

They have a lovely garden area with sayings like "A meal without wine is called breakfast". I thought I took a photo of one, but apparently not.

They used to use these fiberglass barrels,
but now use steel.

These red circles mark the old concrete, fiberglass lined
fermenting areas.

This barrel is about my height. Unlike a
few places in the US that feature barrel
tastings, the only person who tastes from
these is the wine maker.

The olive oil processing is all machine driven now to ensure that the cold pressing is the correct temperature to qualify as Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the only type they produce. Once the stems and leaves are removed, the entire olive, including the pit, is crushed. The result is piped into a centrifuge and the oil goes from there into a filtering machine, and finally to storage. 

Lunch was a combination of salad and small bites, many of which we've had before, and a lentil pasta which I skipped. The dessert is a south Italy specialty that we encountered on our 2017 Sicily trip. St Agnes refused to marry because she was wedded to the church and so she was martyred when her breast was cut off. The nuns started making the cream filled buns to celebrate her sacrifice.

Dessert

After we got home, I had a delightful massage and retired to my room to blog and vegitate. We have one more tour tomorrow, then time to pack to fly home on Saturday. It's been a great trip, but I am about ready to get back to normal.

5/1: Transfer to Trani by Way of Matera

 We left early today because it is Italy's Labor Day and crowds at our first stop were anticipated. We arrived in Matera around 10am and set off on our tour. This is a UNESCO World  Heritage site that has been occupied for the last 35,000 years. Inhabitants used the existing caves for homes and eventually build housing faces in front of the caves. As we have heard before South Italy was largely regarded as a worthless place with lazy people by the ruling parties in the north and little was done to improve life in the south. 

The cave dwellers lived until the 1960s much like their very early ancestors did without electricity, running water, or sewer systems. Because of the steep rocky terrain, livestock was kept in the same dwelling space, which helped to heat it. in the 1950s, this situation became general knowledge and a law was passed to provide other homes and force people out of the caves, but the community resisted because of the close personal interactions they had built up in the compressed space and moving usually meant losing these important connections.

In the meantime, Matera beccame a bustling village above the cave valley. After a brief tour of the upper area, we walked down into the cave valley.

Another purgatory church, dedicated
to help people progress to heaven

The images on the door show that even
in death, the wealthy had preference.
The top row of skulls have a crown or
a bishop's mitre.

Temporary art work: an olive tree
where people are part of the growth.

The Drop below was created by a former Kamikazi pilot, Kenjiro Azuma. The aftermath of WWII led him to turn to art as a reason to live. He came to Italy to study in 1956.

Above and below: The Drop

From here,we started descending. The background shows original caves. The normal-looking homes with the streets and steps are facades to the caves behind them. We visited a cave home that had an English audio tour to explain what everything was.

Central water source

The top of the roof sloped to better capture water and
guide it to an individual cistern

Each door is a different family and the courtyard was for
all. There were many children, half of whom did not make
it to age 3 because of the appalling sanitary conditions.

Church in the rock

Access to the cistern from inside

Plate fixed using the sail-shaped tool on the wall below.

Brazier used to help heat the room

Sleeping for kids and storage

The matrimonial bed with a stable behind it

From here on in, everything is part of the original cave

The kitchen area, with its limestone blocks was the part
of the building that extended out from the cave.

Typical engagement present: the more flowers represents
the greater wealth of the suitor.

Lots of buildings like this are waiting for someone to 
love them. You can buy them cheap, but there is nothing
inside. The estimate is it will cost $3,000- $5,000 per
10 sq ft to rehabilitate them, and can take a long time.

Jean, my long-lost twin sister and me above the cave city.

We got a chance to wander around for a while and were amazed at the throngs of people who had appeared since we started. There happened to be a street market and I found a couple of pairs of earrings I needed. I also found a few more gifts. After lunch, we bussed to Trani, a seaside town with next to no tourist experience, that will be our home for 3 nights before we fly back to the states. We got a chance to explore and had a dinner based on snack-sized foods.

The view from my window. The room is quite large and
has a little balcony.

Another view of the harbor towards town.

The largest boat here with a mast about
half again as tall as any other. It.s owner
is a business magnate based in Bari.

 

Part  of the sea wall

The two tone building on the left is our hotel. I am on
the 1st light colored level, sort of in the middle.

Part of our dinner. We also has a kind of pizza
called pinsa. The cheese was in little chunks under
the toppings. Ir was all pretty good.

4/30: Explore Alberobello and Locorotondo

 Our first stop today is Alberobello, the primary location of the Trulli homes. A home made with a single conical stone roof would cost about 200,000 Euros today. The art of this type of dry-stone building is being lost. There are still folks capable of making repairs, but an entirely new building may not be possible. The local area is full of limestone. The walls were built with the limestone removed from fields so they could be planted, like many other parts of the world. Some of the limestone occurs in large thin sheets and this is what is broken up and used in the roof. Larger blocks build walls and the interior lining.

This area of Italy (Puglia) is very dry. There are no lakes or rivers. There are a lot of limestone caves under the town, with water, but long ago, there was no good way to get it to the homes. The point of the conical roofs was to maximize their catchment into cisterns. Now there is a central water system sourced from an aquaduct. 

Although there is seismic activity here, the caves act as a buffer, so earthquakes have not been the problem they have been in other sections of the country.

The walls of the houses are about 3 feet thick, which keeps them warm in winter and cool in summer. There is typically only 1 bedroom, for the parents, and all the kids sleep in the loft, which also makes the ceiling of the living spaces. We were able to visit a couple homes.

The arch between the 2 travelers holds the only bed

The inner walls of the home follow the curve of the cone.

Wine jug

Ladder to the loft

Flat-topped structures were storage areas with a flat stone
to protect things.

The ladder to the top

The color of the new stone is lighter, and turns gray
as it ages.

This olive tree was a gift from Jerusalem
after WWII. The villagers worked to
protect the Jews who lived in their
community.

View of the new town where most buildings are Trulli.

We got a chance to explore on our own for a while, but my search for purchases was unsuccessful. Back on the bus, we headed to a local farmer to see how he makes cheese and to try some for lunch. Georgio has a 3-acre farm, a herd of 75 cows, some pigs, chickens, and a swan. This size farm is pretty typical. He lives on the farm with his wife and has one farmhand to help him. 

He sells his products to local people and we started in the small showroom. In addition to cheese, he also makes sausage, but that was not a topic today. He make mozzarella, burrata, and aged provolone.We took a look at the milking room, the area where the cheese is started, and the table where he finishes different types of cheese, focusing on what was called 'stretchy cheese'.

Mozzarella

Too make the stretchy cheese, he breaks the a big chunk of
cheese into smaller chunks and chills it.

He adds boiling water and cold to cool it to about 185
degrees and massages it with his hands, adding more
hot water to get the right consistency.

Then, he uses a long flat paddle to stir it into a consistent
texture.

When the texture is right, he scoops some up and stretches
it against the paddle repeatedly.

When it is ready, he can lift it to demonstrate the stretch.

At this point, he made knots and braids with the cheese.
He also opened the covered container behind his elbow
to make the burrata. He flattened a ball of cheese, scooped
in a sort of cottage cheese. and closed it up into a ball that
looked a lot like a Shanghai dumpling

Lunch was salad, bread, crackers, and several types of
his cheese. I preferred his provolone, which had a more
complex flavor than the younger cheeses.

 Back on the bus, we headed for the nearby town of Locorotondo which means "round place". It is another area with Trulli, and is quite charming.

Annunziata made sure we noticed this
small church next to a huge one, that
she shares a name with.

I have seen so much interesting pottery
on this trip. So far, I have been able to
resist the urge to bring lots of it home.

We came to a lovely park overlooking
the neighboring valley. Annunziata
pointed out this old Roman-style
element on the entry gate, which used
to represent how the many could work
together for success. It was co-opted
by Musolini and the fascists and can
no longer be introduced in any form
in Italy. 

This Trulli building was in the view from the park. There
was also a large war monument, listing the townspeople
who had fought and died in several wars.

During our walk, Annunziata suggested we might like to get an Amaro, a digestive that supposedly helps you get over your full stomach faster. It is made of a number of herbs, and had an interesting taste. If I had some, I might try mixing it with prosecco.

Several members of our group got together in the evening with some ordered snacks and wine, supplemented by various foods we had collected on the trip. It was a delightful end to an interesting day.