It’s a little under two hours to go from Lecce to Barri. This, of course, will not dissuade us from making it a seven-hour trip with eight stops along the way. Our entire plan for the day is to cover 150 kilometres without missing a single sight.
The first two stops: Ostuni and Cisternino. Both towns are built atop a small hill, like Tuscan towns, but with the typical white houses of southern Italy. As it’s Saturday, we’re in a peak tourist day (locals and foreigners competing for the same picturesque town and photo op). For us, there’s nothing specific to visit, and no sights we must not miss. We walk the city looking for abandoned little alleys and deserted streets. We discover that the single factor correlating with an alley’s level of tourism is the presence of dead ends. All the dead-end streets we’ve visited were devoid of people. Sadly, they don’t lead anywhere, so we try to avoid them when we can.
After the southern Tuscan towns, we’re off to Martina Franca and Locorotondo. Both towns offer old city centers worth exploring on foot, but we’re planning our stops around the local wines. We picked up Verdeca in Martina Franca. We had plans to pick up D.O.C. wine in Locorotondo, but when we arrived, we were met with thunderstorms and heavy rain. Already with 2/3 of the Apéro wine we needed and disliking walking around a city in heavy rain and thunder, we sprinted back to the car, empty-handed, and headed to our next stop.
Alberobello is known for its Trulli. If you’re wondering, it’s one Trullo and two Trulli. A Trullo is a dry stone hut with a conical roof. They have the classic white walls you’ll find everywhere, but their roof is made of stacks of flat rocks piled atop one another, forming a steep, conical roof. Despite the thunderstorm catching up with us within minutes of our arrival in Alberobello, we were still swarmed by other tourists trying to buy souvenirs from one of the many Trulli converted into shops, or trying to take the perfect picture of them in front of a single-story house with a conical roof. While the constructions are interesting and worth a stop, it felt like Disneyland. Everything felt a little fake, and everything was too much Trulli-themed. Search for Trulli in Google Maps, and you’ll find more hotels and B&Bs than historical sites by a factor of 50 at least. We enjoyed our hour in Alberobello the best we could; we would have made it a half-hour if not for the rain. We were suitably impressed by the houses and moved on.
We skipped the Grotte di Castellana because the English tour (the only guided visit in the Grotto) didn’t fit our schedule. So, it’s in Monopoli where we got “touristed out”. The phrase, first uttered by Karine, means being done with visiting stuff and dealing with the oblivious morons that the other visitors can be. The lady insisting on her boyfriend taking just the right picture of her at a local attraction while others want to see the darn thing that’s behind her or the family of 4 walking side by side in the street at one kilometre per freaking hour, the couple who want a cute picture of their dog some place or the oblivious people walking slowly and stopping at random to wonder where they are on a paper map. I get it, Karine and I are tourists, we take lots of pictures (hundreds a day) and do look for the best spot to take a shot (mine are either behind Karine for what I call a “girlfriend for scale” shot or opposite the direction of the current shot Karine is taking). But we’re always respectful, move out of people’s way if they are walking faster than us and take our shots quickly so as not to be in somebody else’s frame. So it means being done with dealing with other people and, maybe a little, having seen enough white buildings in quaint and ancient towns. But mostly the people. Also, did I mention the tour-bus zombies with their little earpieces, following a flag or an umbrella held in the air? These people would walk off a cliff if the umbrella went there. Good thing Mary Poppins didn’t retire to be a tour guide.
Bari, our final destination, didn’t have the best representation to begin with. Our Airbnb host advertised free parking, by which she meant you’re free to park at any of the nearby parking lots, and these people will feel free to ask you for your money in exchange for a parking spot. The wonderful terrace turned out to be a section of the roof, accessible through the window, with a view of the neighbour’s living room. The 150 steps to the beach turned out to be a 10-minute walk. The washing machine, although present as in the listing, doesn’t have a functional spin function. We try not to judge cities by their hosts or by how they look at night, but Bari is pushing it today.
Dining at Gastronomia del Centro did offer some redemption for the city. Although it provided uneven service (appetizers arrived within minutes, main course took an hour), the seafood, its specialty, was fresh, well-cooked and tasty. Our bellies did finish the evening happy, which is the most essential part of any vacation.
