Arriverderci Lecce. Onwards To See Some Trulli. Truly!

Saturday, Nov 13, 2010, Milan

 We left Lecce on Thursday, with regrets, because it's a romantic and beautiful Italian town that we rapidly became attached to. With its graceful streets and beautiful architecture and its college town atmosphere, it's the kind of place one can relax in and feel very much at home fairly quickly. I did promise you in my last post, a few more pictures of Lecce's most impressive Baroque building - the incredible Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross). You may have already peaked at those pictures on my SmugMug site but in case not, here's one or two to gawk at. Gawk is what we did when we first came across this amazing church. As my sister-in-law Lori wrote to me - "it's spectacular but almost ungapatchka "(to use an Italian phrase.)

And the first prize for the craziest Barocco Leccese architecture goes to.... La Basilica di Santa Croce (The Basilica of the Holy Cross). It took 100 years to build in the 1600's and bears the imprint of several famous architects, most notably Giuseppe Zimbalo (1670 - 1710). Click any photo to see more detail.

The rose window of the Basilica is surrounded by stone with amazing detail. You don't know where to look first.

For more Basilica photos, just CLICK HERE.

We drove north toward Bari and the Valle d'Itria, (the Valley of Itria), which contains some of Italy's most beautiful and unusual villages. They are very close together so, on our way to Corato (a town outside of Bari and our stopover for the night before an early flight on Friday to Milano) we decided to tour the valley and its towns.

First stop was Ostuni- also known as The White Town because of its gleaming whitewashed buildings and street paving. It sits atop a hill and is visible from the distance, appearing almost dreamlike as if it were a bleached-white version of Oz. Actually, all the buildings of this small valley's towns were white and very unusual for Italy They were more like Greek villages in that respet.

It began to rain and my back was aching, preventing much walking, so we drove on to the next town, Cisternino, known for its macellerias - butcher shops that will cook your selection on the spot, for an eat-in-the-rough or take-home meal. But it was siesta time and the shops were closed so we opted for a restaurant that performed the same duty - the various meats were in a butcher counter up front; in back was a lovely hosteria, Da Mimmo, where one could enjoy traditional meals or the cooked meat specialties (which I, of course, opted for -- I always have to try everything).

A piazza in Cisternino, one of the Valle d'Itria villages. We stopped for lunch here.

Stacey at Da Mimmo in Cisternino.


We continued along our way, driving west and passed by Locorotundo, known for its Prosecco sparkling wine. But it was getting late and we were getting tired. A storm seemed to be brewing and the sky turned almost black, setting a dramatic backdrop to the brilliant white town. So we stopped to take some photos of that scene and then drove on to the final and most famous town of Alberobello.

The town of Locorotundo (crazy and fat??) seemed an appartion as we drove toward it and a storm that was coming toward us. >> Click the photo to see it more clearly.


The Valley of Itria was quite lovely - it lies on a limestone upland that provides acreage for fertile farmland and that was evident all around us - myriad olive groves and vineyards were visible throughout the day. Some of the trees must have been very old, twisted and knarled as they were.

But the most peculiar feature of the valley was its unique style of home, called a Trullo. These were, it's said, originally shepherd's huts but later came to be used as dwellings. They are built of the native stone in conical form and without any mortar. As the story goes, they could be rapidly disassembled to avoid taxation when the taxman came to call. Looks like, mortar or not, that would not be an easy job but who am I to knock the legend?

There were hundreds and hundreds of Trulli throughut the valley and they have, in recent years, become the hot property of gentry from other parts of Europe looking for interesting and unique real estate investments. As such, they've been modernized and restored and are really quite interesting. Some have several connected cones making a tiny room into a multi-tiny-roomed dwelling; each cone comprises one room.

We came across this lovely Trullo on the road to Locorotundo. Click the photo to see it larger and clearer.


When it comes to Trulli, it is said, you must go to Alberobello, the last town on our valley tour. There are more Trulli here than anywhere else and the town has been declared a Unesco World Heritage site because of it. It is also a tourist mecca and a Trulli cottage industry (no pun intended) has grown up there. Fortunately, we're visiting in November. We hate to think what this place looks like during high season.

Trulli town: Alberobello. Why and how this came to be and how come it's nowhere else is a mystery that remained unanswered.

Alberobello at dusk.


It was time to set our GPS for Corato, outside of Bari, and our stopping over point for the fight to Milan on Friday. We'd spend four nights in Milan, Italy's high fashion and business center. We didn't know what to expect. To find out you should tune back in when I file my next post.

In the meantime, take a look at ALL of today's photos by CLICKING HERE.