|
Journal Pages
Click a pic
Prague
Berchtesgaden
Bled
Zagreb
Dubrovnick
The Croatian Coast
Venice
Milan
Lucca
Martina Franca
Cartoceto
Pienza
Florence |
On
Vacation in Martina Franca
Tuesday,
July 29 - Lucca to L'Aquila
We
were up early, showered and dressed and went to the bar for breakfast.
Mel had completed the text for Lucca, so I finished work on the images
while she showered. We uploaded the last material while we were at
breakfast, so are completely caught up. Having finished packing and
checked out, we hit the road. We stopped at a large Carrefour store
where we picked up lunch fixings and Mel found the skirt she had been
looking for. It took a little doing getting on the autostrada, but
finally we were on our way.
Several hours later we were in
L'Aquila. The traffic was dreadful. We saw a sign for the Hotel Duomo,
one of the places listed in our guide book, and were able to find it.
The price was right and they had a parking garage a few blocks away.
What an experience! You turn the key in the lock to open the gate into
the lot. Then you open the elevator, retract your outside mirrors, and
pull your car into the elevator. Down one floor and you are out of the
elevator and into a parking space. We weren't sure we were going to be
able to get out of the lot, as the gate had closed. We finally spotted
a button and pushed it and the gate opened. Our room was quite decent
and within walking distance of bars and restaurants. We had a drink and
snacks on the piazza and took a little rest before going out to dinner.
L'Aquila
means 'The Eagle' - once you get past the dreadful traffic in the new
part of town, and past the one-way streets (very narrow) in the old
part of town, it is quite a nice place. We think, based on some of the
directional signs, that it is a university town. That would explain
some of the young people in their weird garb - why do they need all the
tattoos and strange hair color to make themselves different?
The
man at the hotel desk recommended a restaurant nearby. We were glad we
had waited for a very severe storm blew in - thunder and lightening
very close and torrents of rain. It was spectacular.
 Rain in the piazza
We went to the restaurant after the storm and had a very nice dinner of
grilled lamb, which is a specialty of the area.
Some
thoughts about the road between Lucca and L'Aquila - much to our
surprise, there are many small hill towns in the Abruzzo area - we
didn't expect them at all - they are intriguing seen from the road. If
one had a lot of time, you could just poke along and stop at these tiny
villages and small towns along the way. Somehow, we had thought that
hill towns were more a Tuscan thing.
The other thought is that
the road between Lucca and Firenze is dreadful - lots of trucks that
make the traffic really slow, We found it very slow going.
Once
onto the superstrada, it was very quick. When we got into Abruzzo we
found that the road had a lot of tunnels - some very long - the roads
were really quite good, but it must have been an engineering marvel to
put these roads in.
We are a little apprehensive about tomorrow
morning - we have chosen a hotel just off the Duomo (cathedral) square
- there is an open-air market that opens between 6 and 7 am - this
might be a very short night!
 The market in the piazza
Wednesday,
July 30 - L'Aquila to Martina Franca
In
fact, it was a very long night. There were many noisy people on the
piazza below, then the dogs started in later. We had to close the
shutters, and that only provided marginal relief. We wound up sleeping
until our alarm (Tom's cell phone) went off at 7:00. We showered,
packed and dressed, and went down for breakfast. It was pretty
mediocre. After breakfast we checked out and retrieved the car (another
trip in the elevator) and were on our way.
 You want me to put my car where?!!
The
drive to Martina Franca went smoothly enough except for one wrong turn.
The toll plaza where you get onto the A14 has two choices just past the
ticket booth. I took the wrong one. Some 15 kilometers later I was able
to get off and back on again, this time in the correct direction.
We
got into Martina Franca near 3:00 and called our hostess. Pina met us
at the apartment and her husband Enrico arrived a few minutes later. We
had a delightful chat. They told us about the apartment, the old town,
and the surrounding area. We asked for a restaurant recommendation and
Enrico had one. He also suggested that they join us. When we told them
we sing in a choir they suggested that the following night we get
together with some Swiss friends of theirs who also sing.
They
left and we napped - much needed. After our nap we walked up into the
old town, bought some fresh fruit for breakfast, and had a granita.
Then it was back down to the flat for a shower and to get dressed for
dinner. It should be delightful. We are having to rely on our Italian
totally, as they are not speaking English to us.
Pina
and Enrico arrived just after 8:00 and we walked up to the Piazza del
Duomo. This time we turned left around the Duomo. Mel and I had gone
right earlier. The centro storico (old town center) is really stunning
and goes on much further than we had realized. We went out through a
sort of gate next to the ducal palace and into another piazza, then
turned downhill into the zona nuova (new town) and on to the restaurant.
Dinner
was excellent. Pina and Enrico ordered for us all - polpetti (ground
beef meatballs that were breaded and fried) to start, then veal steaks
and orechietti (ear shaped pasta) in tomato sauce, prosciutto, mineral
water and local red wine, and watermelon to finish the meal. We ate too
much.
On the walk back we encountered Stefano and Michella
(friends of Pina and Enrico) and they walked with us back into the
Piazza del Duomo. We all stopped for a coffee before Pina and Michella
walked back down to the apartment with us. What a delightful first day
in Martina Franca.
Thursday,
July 31 - Martina Franca
Fresh
nectarines for breakfast - wow! After breakfast we got a load of
laundry started and Enrico arrived. He showed us where the Internet
cafe is located and we got caught up there, then returned to the digs
and hung out the laundry.
We
walked up the street to the top of the hill to the Piazza Plebiscito,
which is just in front the of Duomo - the marble shone in the sun. The
Baroque Duomo (Basilica di San Martino) is a gem - very well
maintained, except for a few patches of paint in the dome, with lots of
artistic touches (little putti here and there) and beautiful marble
floors and altars. It is a lot smaller than most of the cathedrals
we've been in - you could fit it inside the cathedral at Milan and
never notice the missing space - but it is fitting for the small town
(about 50,000 residents) of Martina Franca.
 The duomo
We
ambled up the piazza to the bar and had a cappuccino and a roll. When we
returned to our apartment, we found that our laundry (on a portable
drying rack) had been moved - the signora in the apartment above us
explained that it had fallen over and she had moved it to a more
suitable spot. At least she spoke Italian and not dialect. Later an
elderly man walked past Tom and said something - Tom could not catch
one word since it was all in dialect, which we are told in this part of
Puglia has a strong French influence because this area had been ruled
by the Normans many years ago (probably in the 1100-1300's, I'm
guessing).
This was to be our day to explore a little of the
countryside around Martina Franca. In this area are the unique little
dwellings called trulli - they are entirely made of stone and are built
without the use of mortar or cement. They have domed roofs and are
cylinders - there are no windows and the builders may put several
trulli next to each other and cut holes in the walls to connect the
rooms. They are now 'protected' by the government, so if you want to
renovate a trullo, you have to restore it in keeping with the
historical appearance. The English have discovered them and are buying
them for summer homes - a nice home of three of four trulli can be
bought for $100,000-150,000 and the renovation costs about that much
again. By British terms, that is very reasonable for a summer home.
We
first drove to the village nearest Martina Franca - Locorotondo - it
appears to be walled, but the walls now have been turned into
apartments - it is very white, to reflect the heat and there is a
marvelous view of the village from the main road.
 Locorotondo
Our
next town was Alberobello ('beautiful tree') which is famous for
trulli, but has become a tourist destination and is said to be very
expensive. Like so many of the towns in Italy, the outskirts are a
conglomeration of modern high rise buildings, various industry, filling
stations and general ugliness. Once inside the old town, the towns are
beautiful. Alberobello does have a number of very nice trulli, but I
think we prefer Martina Franca as a place to stay.
 Trulli in Alberobello
We
drove further to Le Grotte di Castellana. Along the way we passed a
motorcycle-car accident - once again, the motorcyclist came out on the
short end of the transaction - the ambulance making its way to the
scene wasn't in much of a hurry, so we assumed that the motorcyclist
had been killed. How sad, but the roads in this part of Italy (and most
everywhere else in the country) are narrow and twisting and the
motorcyclists tend to ride as if they are invincible. This area is
extremely rocky and the rocks have been employed in building fences, so
there is no soft verge to break the crash of a vehicle.
The
grotto at Castellana was discovered about 70 years ago - it is a long
series of underground caves formed in the limestone - there are many
shapes of stalactites and stalagmites so you can let your imagination
soar- a camel, a Madonna, a snake. There are also many colors - pinks,
reds, greens and blacks. It is quite beautiful, and the air is cool -
which was welcomed, because it is quite warm in the summer in Puglia.
 Inside the grotte
We made a side trip to Torre
Canne to see what access to the beach is like, then returned to Martina
Franca. Mel went for a stroll up into the centro storico while I worked
on getting financial records caught up. She took a few more photos
while on her walk.
 In the centro storico
At about 7:30 Pina and Enrico returned and took us to the trulli
home of their Swiss friends, Peter and Sylvia. Their home is really
lovely and we got to see the inside of a trulli home. The connected
rooms seem to go on and on. They have a caper plant in their garden and
Sylvia showed us some caper berries, the fruit that forms if the
flowers are left unplucked.
 Caper berries, the plant, and their trulli
Sylvia and Pina got busy making dough for the pizzas while Peter
got his wood fired oven going. It is quite a production. When the
inside of the oven becomes white you know it is hot enough. At that
point Peter moved coals to one side and scrubbed the surface with a wet
towel on the end of a long broom. Mel spread sauce on the dough while
others added olives, capers, gorgonzola and mozzarella. It only takes a
few minutes for the pizza to bake in that very hot oven. We sat down to
a wonderful meal and much chatter - almost all in Italian.
 The oven and preparations
 We six at dinner
One of the things I found interesting about the pizza oven is that in
days past, this was the only one in the area, so people would bring
their bread dough to bake in this oven.
Seventy years or more
ago, this was a very poor area - we are in the heart of the Mezzo
Giorno (why it is called that I don't know - it means 'mid-day') and
thousands of Italians left for the north of Italy, South America and
and the US. Now the emigration has stopped and there is a net influx of
people.
Finally it was time for us to head back to the apartment for a much needed sleep.
Friday, August 1 - Martina Franca
We must have been really tired because we slept until 9 am, something
we almost never do. We had breakfast in the apartment and then walked
around the town a little. Our plans had been to go to the beach, but we
learned from the TV news that this was going to be a very busy travel
weekend (we should have remembered that the first weekend in August is
when all the Italians hit the road for the 'ferie' (vacation). What is
wrong with us? There were supposed to be 14 million more autos on the
road this weekend than normal - and normally the roads in Italy are
very busy. We reconsidered (besides, we had a good parking space, which
we would lose the minute we moved the car) and decided to have a very
quiet day in the town.
Food
thoughts - the food in Italy is generally wonderful, but there are some
exceptions - we are not fond of the packaged breads and pastries and
the orange juice is unpalatable - which makes no sense since oranges
are grown in Italy. Of course, the wine, olives and olive oil,
prosciutto and regional specialties are very good. The food is varied,
unlike Croatia where everything was predictable (pizza, cutlets and
fish). The vegetables are almost always grilled and at this time of
year are typically eggplant, zucchini and peppers. Every so often you
get carrots and beans.
We
have discovered granita - I suppose in the US it is sold as Italian ice
- we've had lemon, almond and strawberry flavors - they are wonderfully
refreshing - much more so than a gelato.
In
Puglia one often has little crackers that are shaped in a circle - they
come in different flavors - our favorite is 'finocchio' (fennel) - we
aren't sure what they are called - maybe taralli.
At
Sylvia's and Pietro's we had capers from their caper bush. She had
cured them herself, in salt - they are wonderful, but cured in salt
capers are hard to come by in the US.
It
appears that the Pugliese diet isn't quite as healthy as that in other
parts of Italy - there are many people who are very stout, something
you rarely see in other parts of Italy - I think elsewhere it just
isn't 'bella figura' to be overweight.
Today
we had our 'main meal' at 1:30 - we shared a caprese (I think this was
mozzarella di mucca or cow's milk mozzarella) with wonderful tomatoes
and arugula. Then we shared a plate of mixed grilled meat - sausage,
lamb and veal and I think they snuck in a little liver. We also had a
plate of grilled vegetables and some roasted potatoes with rosemary -
very nice, but we planned for a light meal in the evening.
In
other parts of Italy we've been able to buy whole roasted chickens at a
rosticeria, but we haven't had any success here in Puglia. As a matter
of fact, the rosticeria also often have risotto, roasted vegetables and
virtually everything you need to make a very nice dinner. Failing to
find one, we did locate a supermarket (OK, about twice the size of a
convenience store) and we got some sausage wrapped with prosciutto,
risotto and a salad mix for dinner - we are going to have the sausage
for lunch tomorrow as well as dinner tonight.
After
dinner we headed up the little hill to the Duomo - there was a
presentation of Puccini's Messa Gloria - what a surprise - we thought
we were early (about 20 minutes before the start) and the place was
packed - we had to sit on the floor. By the time the performance began,
the place was overflowing. The orchestra was very good, but they over
powered the choir and the choir's diction was not crisp enough for the
very live space of the Duomo - we literally couldn't tell what movement
of the Mass they were singing. It was a shame, for this is one of the
most glorious pieces in the Italian repertoire, We left before the end
of the performance - Tom wasn't able to sit on the marble floor for
more than three movements.
We thought of our drive to Le Marches the next day with apprehension - would it be miles of backups? |
|
