We were served by the same waiter for ‘breakfast’ at Cin Cin this morning. He is from Afghanistan, been in Italy for seven years and speaks reasonable English. He said it was a struggle to get ahead as the waiter job just covers living expenses and he’d like to go to university. I dashed off to the supermarket for some supplies while the girls went to see if the book shop was open. The bookshop didn’t open till 10 and then closes at 12 and re-opens from 4 – 9. Crazy hours for business from our point of view. We heard a telephone ring nearby and saw one on a pillar of the verandah, and a guy wandered over from his taxi and answered it. It was the local, plug in your own phone, taxi rank just outside Cin Cin. Rather odd way to get your fares, but obviously effective… I’ve been collecting photos of manhole covers and noticed one with the old roman symbol (fasc/community) of some sticks bound together with leather and including an axe, representing the strength in numbers of those with a similar cause. The fascists used this as their symbol early last century and strange to see it on some manhole covers…
Picked up some coffee and more pasticaotto (our most favourite pastry so far) on the way to the station and then took a little time to find platform (binari) 6 for the FSE (regional) train (rather than Trenitallia). The sottopassaggato (underground walkway/subway to the platforms) only had platforms 1 to 5 listed but someone told that 6 & 7 were on the other side of a train waiting at platform 5. So, walked to the end of the train and walked across the tracks to the next set of platforms to wait for the 10:26 to Alberobello. Enjoyed a quiet trip and the scenery of farms, olive groves dotted with trullis. Trulli are unique small houses with conical roofs made out of stone that the locals built to dodge the rates inspector. They’d dismantle them, taking the roof apart before he came, and declare that they didn’t have a permanent house and therefore shouldn’t have to pay the rates tax. We’ll be staying in one tonight.
Donato was able to meet us at his office early and he took us to number 34 via M. Nero which was our very own tiny trulli house. Sweet! Small living area with sideboard, cupboard & table, two alcoves with beds in them, a tiny kitchen and bathroom. On the outside, our home had three conical roofs and a chimney were the stove range-hood vents too. Very comfortable and homely.
Wendy had read about the caves at Grotte di Castejlana, and with the help of a girl at the information point down our street, we worked out that we could get there and back before it got too late. In the meantime we took a saunter around the streets marvelling at all the little houses and their quaint rocky roofs. They are quite low to the ground and often the edges of the roofs are at eye level. I’m not sure of the construction process, but the flat slabs of stone are just layered up getting smaller the higher they go. Capped off with little flat round rocks they do look impressive. When two cones meet on the one house, the two meld into each other, or there is a gutter to help direct the water out onto the street. It seems many of the houses that face onto the street have been turned into shops and people sit outside inviting the passerby to come in and look at the authentic regional artefacts and wares, or the view from upstairs form a window or balcony. I lost the girls for a moment and found them in a house/shop with the main/front room full of a weaving loom. The proprietress had made some lovely scarves and ended up selling us a couple. I noticed a hole in the ceiling with a ladder hanging out and she told us that that was where they sleep. No waste of space with an internal staircase here… One side of the town has 1000 trulli most of which are shops and the other side has 400 which are mostly domestic dwellings. We wandered over to the non-commercial sector and overheard one guy telling an Italian tourist who was taking a photo that he couldn’t live here any more because he was a victim, held captive by the tourist gaze. I could understand his point – people wandering around the neighbourhood taking photos of me & my house would upset me too! It is difficult to walk around and not take photos – it’s all very photogenic, but as a visitor/guest, you can show some discretion.
The 3 km round trip underground was just fabulous, and can easily compare with our Jenolan or Margaret River caves.
The tour in english was at the wrong time so we had to settle for an Italian one, but a couple of people helped out with translations. Met Andre (a retired businessman) who was from Florence and travelling around southern Italy (because it was cheap) and trying out a campervan. He spoke good english and had lots of questions about Australia. They are thinking about coming out for a visit and buying a camper-van and seeing a bit of the country. Also another guy with good english who had travelled a little, and been to see the caves a few times before. His grandfather’s brother had help the guy who discovered the caves explore them further and he kept coming along in respect to them. This guy’s wife bumped her head on a rock ledge and a guide raced up to a first aid box (a hundred metres along the path) and grabbed a bag of ice and went back to help her. By the time we’d got back to the surface she had a really nice egg on her head, luckily no broken skin.
Back in time and just made it to a small supermarket for some supplies for a picnic dinner of nuts & dried fruit, eggs & bread, and peaches & yoghurt.
