The structure of these things are really interesting. Story is that they were originally made to quickly be able to take down quickly or moved and therefore not pay tax to the Kingdom of Naples. Maybe these were the first Libertarians, realizing the government took more from the people than necessary.
If you do visit Alberbello I'd suggest you only plan for a couple hours, unless you are really into this kind of thing. I'd also suggest arriving just after lunch, I'm not exaggerating that the crowds, and there were lots of people, were about 25% the size after lunch as before.
We had an outstanding lunch at Ristorante con Giardino, mozzarello al forno (small mozzarella balls wrapped in proscuitto and baked, so good), and ravollini pesto. Kathie had something that was good as well, but not as good as mine and that is a rare occurrenc. They started us out with a bowl of olives, and given our next destination we shouldn't have been surprised.
We departed Alberobello and headed SE to Ostunia, the white town on a hill. We didn't have any real plans other than wanting to see the place, it was basically nearby, and the Adriatic Sea was close. I wish I had the GoPro on the dashboard for the drive through town, the streets were so windy, hilly and tight that it was an adventure getting through. However the eastern side of town is where the view appears, and its spectacular. The town sits glowingly atop the hill, sun gleaming off it like a statue. Its really tough for a guy like me to get a picture capturing the essence of the view; I'm learning on this trip to take a shot that will enable me to recall the mental picture later which is so lovely.
In the foreground of this shot are some olive trees. Some is an understatement. The above and below shot are from the same point, just using zoom on one above and wide angle lense on the bottom.
I'm talking olive trees as far as you could see between the hils on the left and the Adriatic sea on the right, just thousands of them. Here's a big on that we found alongside the road. The narled looking trunk on this one is typical of the older trees, some of which are several hundred years old. There are stories that some of the olive trees in Italy go back to Roman Empire times, that's my kind of appetizer!
We made our way through the olive groves and to the Adriatic Sea, which lies on the Eastern side of Italy. I plan to swim in all 5 seas surrounding Italy on this trip, this day marked the third. (Mediterranean-Selinunte & Portopalo, Tyrrhenian-Tropea). Let me tell you my friends the water has been cold in all three thus far, but so refreshing. After the heat of Alberobello and the car ride I couldn't wait to get in that water! Sandy bottom below and a little murky as the sea was rolling but there's nothing like saltwater to make you feel refreshed.
We had a quick stop here and after some weaving out of the "parking area", in Italy if your car fits you can park there, we headed back to Matera for dinner. We hoped to hit the nearby trattoria but there were about 4 groups waiting so we headed up to Morgan's pizzeria again, this time opting for pasta & fish. My pasta was supposedly spicy then baked, resulting in crunchy spaghetti noodles that was tasty but not spicy the way I like it. Kathie got codfish materanna (with tomatoes, capers and olives) and naturally it was far better than my choice. I did also order a salad, gotta get a couple veggies in, but if this thing wasn't the biggest salad ever I don't know what could top it. Tuna, mozzarella, corn, green tomatoes and lettuce, so good. I could only get down about half of it.
And there was wine. We really like wine.
Ciao :-)
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