Monday, October 26, 2015
We left beautiful Matera
and began the drive to Alberobello, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, back in
Apulia. Along the way we began to see a
number of trulli:
Alberobello is a village
made completely of trulli, limestone buildings with mortarless roofs in a cone
or dome shape. The roof slabs are
layered and held together by a keystone, and the walls are mostly whitewashed.
Looking at the roofs, it’s
hard to imagine that they would keep the structure dry in a wind-whipped
rainstorm, but apparently they do.
Today most of the
buildings have been turned into tourist shops, and we spent a pleasant hour
plus walking the town and visiting the shops.
We then drove through the countryside and passed vast olive farms where
the harvest is in progress. We arrived
at the Masseria Lo Spagnulo near Ostuni, where we are to have lunch and then take a walk:
This turned out to be
somewhat sad. The masseria must have
been truly lovely once, but it is now somewhat rundown, in poor repair, and the
accommodations have been taken over as an encampment for refugees. There are a number of men (we saw no women)
simply hanging out here as a safe place.
They have no work, a tiny income from the Italian government which
subsidizes their lives, and their futures are very unclear. In addition, the vast olive groves which
belong to the farm are not being managed or harvested. That seemed to us to be a disconnect—if there
are able-bodied men here who have no work and there are olive groves to be
harvested, well…..
We had a very mediocre
lunch adjacent to some historic olive presses, and then the three men took a
walk with Ido while the women stayed behind:
From a rise over some
railroad tracks the enormity of the fields was visible:
The trees are very old,
perhaps 1000 years, and the trunks make fantastic shapes:
Also on the grounds is a
90% completed resort. It never was
finished, and is now abandoned and falling into disrepair.
The remainder of our walk
(and some time after) was filled with our fantastic plans to buy and finish the
place. We had great ideas, let by our
entrepreneur Peter, and had much fun telling our wives of our plans upon our
return.
In the late afternoon we
drove to Lecce where we checked into our lovely hotel, a restored palace. More tomorrow.
Very interesting to learn that not all these distinctive and historically interesting towns are thriving. I wonder if there are problems with the national government with how money is allocated. Maybe even good intentions that go awry because of bribery or inefficiency in offices. When I read the complaints (in the D+C) from small businesspeople in Rochester about how hard it is--or at least was until recently--to get permits approved, etc., I figure that things may be as bad or much worse elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteVictor - I am intrigued by the Trulli structures. I imagine they are used here because of the abundance of flat rocks and the lack of timber. I'm guessing the conical tops are self supporting domes, but they must be tricky to build! Fascinating!
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