Part 2
Calitri continued
Matera
Albarobello

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Monday September 28th - Tuesday

This day Luther walked to the bakery and got a pastry and a small bread for our breakfast. I was looking forward to buying some ceramics, which Calitri is known for. Luther wanted to try to go to Taurasi again, which is known for it's good red wines.

The day was cool and partly sunny. We went up into the upper, newer part of town where I'd seen a ceramics sign. We found the shop and I bought four pieces. They were pretty and not expensive.

We stopped in a grocery for water and bought a bottle of wine in case we struck out in Taurasi. We also wanted to try a place for lunch recommended in our locanda book.

Well we did find Taurasi but there was nowhere to buy wine (!) There was a sign, which went to an Enotecca, but it was not to be found. So we gave up and went to Paternopoli, the capital of the wine region - still no go - no wine shops.


There were LOTS of wind farms
Taurasi Grapes
Taurasi Grapes
Taurasi Grapes

Taurasi Grapes
Taurasi Grapes

It was nearing closing time for all the stores so we went back to a town where we'd seen one of those mega stores. Usually they are like Wal-Mart with everything under one roof. We bought several wines so we could bring them with us to our next destination.

Now we addressed the lunch issue. There was a recommendation for Pergoda in a town called Gesualdo. It had a castle and I inferred from the write-up that it was close to the castle. Nope. Some very nice local folks offered to let us follow them there. It was a good distance away from town out in the country and when we arrived there was no one about. Boo. We were getting grumpy. There was another recommendation in a town not far from Calitri called Bisaccia called Grillo d'Oro so we tried for that one.

We got onto the autostrada and got off at about 2PM. We passed a pizzeria and we figured we should give up on the recommendations and eat there. It was fine. We had pasta and secondi and a bottle of unlabeled white wine and some coffee to round it out.

On the way back we searched out Grillo d'Oro which looked very nice. Oh well - better luck next time. This day was a day of noes. No wine - no good meal.

Back in the apartment there was time to relax. We had pasta with seafood which was pretty good. We put a plate out for the poor skinny cats.

A most unusual thing happened after dinner. We moved our chairs outside and were sitting with our wine and Luther's cigar when a woman comes striding down the hill. She says - in English - "enjoying your cigar I see". And I said "you are an American?" and she stopped and came over and I instantly recognized her as the woman who had been written about in the NY Times. I had enjoyed the touching article about her returning to Calitri where her grandparents had been born and about her being enfolded by all of her long lost kin.

Turns out she finally (after 9 years of back and forth) moved to Calitri for what she thinks is for good.

We really enjoyed our conversation. She teaches English and has moved into the house where her grandmother grew up. It's even smaller than our rental apartment. She seems happy.

Pictures of Calitri

September 29 - Wednesday (Happy birthday Dad!)

Well we had reached the end of our Calitri stay. I wished we had met Angela sooner. I am sure she would have helped us enjoy Calitri more than we did.

We packed up and headed out towards Matera. It took about 2 hours to get there.

We parked and went down into the Sassi. This is an entire town dug into the slopes of the Matera Gravina. The rock is called Tufa and is soft. There are many churches dug into the stone too. It was quite amazing. We visited the Chiesa Madonna della Virtu (left and right) - the church wound around up and down several stories all dug into the rock.

Matera Sassi

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Duomo
Duomo
Then we climbed (!) to the Duomo but it was closed. It was now lunchtime. We had decided to eat in a Locanda choice right in the Stassi called Le Botteghe. It was excellent. We ordered the antipasti tasting menu to share and 2 pastas. The tasting menu was pretty large and very good. We had capponata, a grilled bacon-y thing, mushrooms, what looked like meatballs in tomato sauce but they were really like very dense cornbread inside, fresh mozzarella with greens, a square of pizza or focaccia, some fried balls with maybe eggplant inside (?), a little bowl of greens with cooked black eyed peas and finally our primi. I had homemade pasta which was kind like penne but twisted with grilled veggies and Luther got orecchiette with tomatoes and cheese in a little brown pottery dish. We had glasses of white and a bottle of Falcone - red - and expressi. We were good and full.


Restaurant interior
Capponata
Grilled Bacon-y thing
Mushrooms
Strange meatballs (good name for a band!)

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We had a hard time getting out of the Sassi and finding our car. Many, many steps and cobbles and hills. We finally got back about 3:45.

We headed for Albarobello. On the way we went to the overlook to view the Stassi from across the ravine. Quite spectacular and hard to get the magnitude of it in a picture. This was the place they had filmed the Crucifixion in the Passion of the Christ movie.

The drive to Albarabello was pretty easy. We had a little trouble finding the office but finally did and checked into our Truli. These were strange little beehive-like buildings with stone conical roofs.

Our room was only OK. There was a bed alcove - a kitchen counter - a hard sofa and table with 4 chairs in the middle of the room. There was also a fireplace. They charged 25 euro for a fire!

We wandered a little and had a glass of wine and bought some pasta for souvenirs. We planned to eat in a pizzeria this night. We went to the nearest one which was mostly empty. I got two antipasti - a caprese salad and shrimp. Luther had a pizza. It was fine. We enjoyed watching a group of Russians come in, sit down after talking to the server about the menu selections and then all getting up and leaving. The server/proprietor was disgusted - she said they were uneducated. We headed off to bed.

Trulis and Arbarobello

September 30 - Thursday

We were up and breakfasted on what the hotel left us - croissants, jam, honey, yogurt, juice, and instant coffee. It was adequate.

This was market day in Albarabello. It was probably the best one we'd ever seen in Italy. Later I would wish that I had bought some produce!

Alberobello Market

We had decided to drive to Lecce - about 1 1/2 hours away. We got on the big 4-lane road along the coast and arrived about 11AM with plenty of time to tour. We managed to find a parking place and headed into town through an old gate. We saw several wonderful old churches with very ornate facades and we saw the Duomo. There was lots of good window-shopping.


Lecce - Roman Amphitheater
Beautiful Church
Inside Church
Church Carvings
Church Carvings

Us in a cafe in Lecce
Good beer

Luther got some books in Italian and I got a cookbook in English of Puglia dishes.

We had chosen a restaurant called il Due Corte from our Locanda book coupled with our tour guide. The food was good and not too much. We both had pasta with tomato sauce - they were big, wide noodles. Then I had octopus cooked in a pot and Luther had sausage.


House white wine
Local red
Octopus

We were seated next to a couple from Florida who had just completed a bike tour. Other than them there was a Dutch couple there. The meal was fine with white wine to start and a really jammy red.

The drive back was uneventful. We wanted to cook in that evening but it was amazingly hard to find a store. We finally did and got some pasta.

Dinner was very basic. Salami and tomato sauce with garlic on Penne pasta. Afterwards we sat outside and Luther had a cigar.


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