Italy

Puglia Biking – Valle d’Itria Loop Ride

Posted on September 5, 2013 by WolfeStreetTravel

While in Alberobello, we did a loop ride through the Itrian Valley. This was undoubtedly the most interesting ride, primarily due to the two kickass little towns we ended up hanging out in during the day – Locorotondo and Martina Franca.

Loop route from Alberobello

Shocking! More trulli . . .

A quick stop at a church in the small town of Coreggia

Even the rectory is a trullo building

The town of Locorotondo, known for its Locorotondo DOC spumanti wine, which we were obliged to sample repeatedly

Very tiny town – half the names on this WWI memorial are from just four families

Unexpected wedding in Locorotondo

We moved aside from out table (our wine!) so the couple could get wedding photos at the cafe

The mirage-like town of Martina Franco apears in the distance

One of the several piazzas in Martina Franco

We’re not sure why many of the church doors in Puglia were painted this cool jade color, but they looked great

Um, sure, why not?

Heading back out of town

Actual travel date: September 3, 2013

Categories: Biking, Italy, Puglia, Puglia, Italy | Tags: Biking in Puglia, Trulli, Trullo, Valle d'Itria | 1 Comment

Puglia Biking – Olives, Fountains, and Figs

Posted on September 5, 2013 by WolfeStreetTravel

We experienced three things consistently during each of our 8 days of riding – olive groves, fountains with potable water, and roadside fig trees. The first is self-explanatory (although one of the very cool things in Puglia is the preponderance of groves of massive olive trees that are hundreds and hundreds of years old). The second is likely relevant only to bikers in the area – there are public fountains with potable water both in towns and in some of the most unlikely places in the middle of nowhere, much to our relief during our loop ride from Ostuni.

Finally, the fig trees. I was completely oblivious to these, but Lisa turned out to be particularly attuned to the little snack machines. At some point during most of our rides, I’d look back, and she’d be gone. A few minutes later, she’d ride up, grinning, with a handful of ripe figs that she spotted. They were great to have on the ride, particularly since they were plucked fresh off a tree. (This also worked for almonds in one instance, which was great.)

Route of the loop ride from Ostuni

Leaving La Città Bianca for the day

Ubiquitous olive groves

The farmers were cleaning up the understory and burning leave in preparation for olive harvest

Some of the really old olive trees that were common across Puglia

Countryside fountain – as long as it had a brass spout, it was potable, and the water from all of these was excellent

Lisa detects figs near the fountain and springs into action

A stopover in the nothingburger town of Ceglie Messapica

Inside the old 11th-century fortress – nothing to see here

Other than a mildly creepy set of guys holding a crest from some long-ago ruling family

Original walls of the fortress

Scenes around town in Ceglie Messapico

Yeah, we’re not done with trulli

Lisa detects figs . . .

Interesting means of highlighting a barrier cable, second in oddness only to . . .

This way

A perfectly located fountain at a masseria along one of our rides

And, of course, Lisa finds figs nearby

Master forager and her prey during another day of biking

Categories: Biking, Italy, Puglia, Puglia, Italy | Tags: Biking in Puglia, Figs, Olives | 1 Comment

Puglia Biking – Ostuni

Posted on September 5, 2013 by WolfeStreetTravel

After the trullifest of Alberobello and the Valle d’Itria, we rode south and east, toward the Adriatic and the white-washed town of Ostuni – La Città Bianca. We celebrated our 15th anniversary here, which was great – Ostuni ended up being one of the best experiences of the trip.

Route from Alberobello to Ostuni

Great- more trulli . . .

On the way to Ostuni, we stopped in the town of Cisternino for lunch

On Cisternino’s platau looking over the valley

The main square of the walled city of Cisternino

Lunch location – the town is known for its seared meat, which you hand pick. Pretty good (the wine was even better).

Climing a hill to reach the Adriatic

Goal achieved – it was great to see blue water

As we rode down the coast, we got closer to the white city

La Città Bianca

Collapsing at the hotel after the ride

Converted palazzo elements at the hotel

Multiple glasses of the local Primitivo wine were consumed . . .

The 25,000-year-old skeleton of a pregnant woman in Ostuni’s Museum of Preclassical Civilization

Ostuni’s cathedral

St. Blaise in a lunette over one of the doors, holding a model of Ostuni

Bishop’s Palace Bridge in the cathedral’s piazza

View of the Adriatic through the city walls

Ostuni’s main square, right outside the medieval, walled city

The town wakes up at 11:15 . . .

Sure, what else would two dorks and a camera do after a few bottles of wine?

Actual travel date: September 4 – 5, 2013

Categories: Biking, Italy, Puglia, Puglia, Italy | Tags: Biking in Puglia, Ostuni | Leave a comment

Puglia Biking – 50 Miles to the Masseria

Posted on September 5, 2013 by WolfeStreetTravel

Our experience in Ostuni was outstanding – so much so that we figured the upcoming cities and accommodations would be a let down. Although our next destination, Otranto, may not been quite so overwhelmingly charming as La Città Bianca, the volume increased to 11 in the accommodation category. We stayed at a killer masseria – a fortified farm house on a country estate unique to Puglia. Ours wasn’t fortified, per se, but as soon as we got there, we knew we would be skipping the next day’s loop ride just to soak in the experience.

But first we had to get there . . .

The journey from Ostuni to Otranto was the longest of the trip: we loaded our bikes on the regional train down the hill from Ostuni’s centro storico and traveled first to the little town of Squinzano, south of Brindisi, then hauled ass for 50 miles down the Adriatic coast to the oasis of a masseria.

Bike route from Squinzano, past Otranto, to the masseria

The very cool, Romanesque Abbey of Santa Maria di Cerrate, founded in the 12th century

The abbey was raided by Turkish pirates in 1711, and was left in a state of disrepair until 1965

Restoration of some of the centuries-old murals

Rather interesting child containment unit in the abbey’s museum

Olive oil press above ground, in the abbey . . .

. . . and underground, where horses worked and lived in the stalls around the press

Subterranean olive reservoirs

Very cool grotesques on the column capitals

Another masseria on the way to Otranto

Chia-trullo

The castle town of Acaya, where we had a great lunch and fortified ourselves with vino della casa for the road ahead

Along the Adriatic

The nice beach town of San Foca

Our destination after a long, hot ride – the mythical masseria. Why were we so happy to get there?

Sweet. Exactly what we had been dreaming about for the entire second half of the ride.

Yeah, I don’t think we could have been happier here – perfect place to unwind after 7 solid days of biking.

Even the bikes are happy here

Actual travel date: September 6, 2013

Categories: Biking, Italy, Puglia, Puglia, Italy | Tags: Biking in Puglia, Masseria, Otranto | Leave a comment

Puglia Biking – Otranto

Posted on September 5, 2013 by WolfeStreetTravel

The penultimate city on the trip was Puglia’s very cool port city of Otranto. We biked over the next morning after our 50-mile ride down the Adriatic coast to check it out, then hustled back to the masseria to hang out for the rest of the day.

Quintessential Italy – a row of scooters in front of Otranto’s big castle

15th-century Aragonese castle with a now-dry moat

Unlike Ostuni, which was set back from the coast, Otranto’s a port town

Very cool cardboard sculpture of a Vespa at an exhibition being held at the Castello Aragonese

17th-century Gothic rose window on what was originally a 12th century Romanesque (much better than Gothic) cathedral

. . . the floor’s the real show. A 12th-century mosaic of the tree of life

The monk who did the floor over decades had never actually seen an elephant

The Turks raided the city in 1480 and massacred the bishop and 800 citizens

Their bones are in one of the cathedral’s chapels

Definitely a great town to spend the morning.

Actual travel date: September 7, 2013

Categories: Biking, Italy, Puglia, Puglia, Italy | Tags: Biking in Puglia, Otranto | Leave a comment

Puglia Biking – Lost in Translation

Posted on September 5, 2013 by WolfeStreetTravel

Outside of the medieval centers of the old cities, when we’re on the road, we don’t typically get lost on these bike trips. But, holy crap, we go all over the place trying to find our destination hotel or route starting point in the old towns. It’s really frustrating when it happens–particularly arriving into a new town, and the only thing between our current sweaty selves and lounging, scrubbed clean, with a couple of glasses of prosecco is the damn hotel location.

However, it’s somewhat comical after the fact, particularly when you get to see your attempts from the GPS output from the unit you brought over with you . . .

Here’s trying to find the hotel in Alberobello:

The hotel is top right, near the residential trulli area. We decided that looking all over the place on the hill to the south would be a better bet, apparently.

Here’s our desperate attempt to find the hotel in Ostuni:

Frankly, the way we ultimately found our way to the hotel was when Lisa spotted their little tuk tuk driving some guests up the hill into the historic center – centro storico:

And, although we haven’t gotten there yet in the blog posts, here’s our feverish attempt to find our hotel in Lecce:

We typically stop for a leisurely lunch in a town on the way during our rides, but we rode straight through from Otronto to Lecce and were hungry and thirsty when we arrived. We could not wait to sit down and relax for a late lunch, but these towns totally close down at 3:00, and it was almost 2:00 when we arrived. I actually turned off the GPS unit before we found it because it kept beeping and I was so pissed.

One of the reasons it took so long to find our place (we had directions, but they never really help after you’re in the maze of tiny streets in the centro storico) was that we knew that it was right across from the celebrated baroque basilica, so we were looking for that. The problem is, as you can see from the photo, there’s a big ass church every 200 feet in Lecce and all of them look like cathedrals or basilicas. So, we kept riding around and around these churches looking fruitlessly for our place. We split up (actually, I took off confident that I’d find it and come back for Lisa) and Lisa ended up finding it and calling me . . .

Categories: Biking, Italy, Puglia, Puglia, Italy | Tags: Biking in Puglia, Getting Lost in European Cities | 2 Comments

Puglia Biking – Lecce

Posted on September 5, 2013 by WolfeStreetTravel

Our final ride was from the masseria near Otranto to Lecce, the “Florence of the South.” Full of over-the-top, ornate, Baroque architecture. It also appeared to have a higher cathedral/basilica density than any other city we’ve ever been to in Europe.

Bike route to Lecce

The church at the end of the street (in Vernole, on the way to Lecce)

The baroque style begins appearing as we near Lecce

Killer pickup truck

The symbol of Lecce above a church door – an ilex tree with a she-wolf at the foot

Lecce town square immediately outside of the centro storico

Roman amphitheater in the Lecce square

The Basilica di Santa Croce, the highlight of the city, from our hotel rooftope. Predictably for us on our trips, it was undergoing renovation while we were there

The ornate, make-every-space-a-little-sculpture approach to emblishment on the basilica that’s characteristic of the baroque style

Another jade-colored door on the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Grazia around the corner

Characteristically baroque chapel in the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Grazia

Pirate altar!

Another ornate chapel

Tomb in the church’s crypt

Painting in a chapel in the crypt . . .

What the what?

Piazza Duomo – the plaza in front of yet another big-ass church in Lecce

The Lecce duomo is a little unusual – it had grand entrances both in the front and on the side, closer to the Bishop’s Palace, to the right

Detail of unusual duomo door

Even more detail (hey, it was cool)

Glass orbs at the top of the door for the sun and moon; inside the light streamed through these in a pretty spectacular way (that also f’d up the ability to take a decent picture of the effect)