Another great day today. A village full of crazy round houses and some retail therapy.
The first thing to remark on today though is Sue’s alarm at trying out a bum gun at the B&B last night… the less said about that the better I think!
But back to today…
We had a leisurely start to the day at Torre Sibissi B&B, a buffet breakfast on a sunny terrace chatting with the B&B receptionist. She was really well travelled but also gave us some local things to see. But we were heading for Alberobello today and wanted to see if we could find an outdoorsie shop to have a mooch and pick up some stuff that might be useful.
And to our great shock and surprise, Ollie was still parked outside the B&B when we went to find him. Always a bonus when he’s not been nicked in such dodgy surroundings!
So we headed out and pointed ourselves at Casamassima, 40k south of Bari, where we were told there was a shopping mall and a big Decathlon.
As we cruised down the dual carriage ways, we couldn’t help but notice how much rubbish there was lining the roads. Either the Italians really don’t give a sh*t about throwing rubbish out of their cars or they haven’t been cleared in decades. Off the dual carriage ways the roads are shockingly bad (pot holes and rubbish), so maybe it’s a roads funding issue. But really the trash on the sides of the roads is appalling!
Anyway we found Decathlon and spent a good hour perusing and picking up some stuff. Nothing much, a few t-shirts, some travel towels and a chair. Sue’s not madly keen on the chair but I really needed something to lounge in better than the standard van chairs. We’ll see how it works out…
We then hit the shopping mall and did a grocery shop for a few days. We couldn’t believe how many shops were the same as back in the UK, H&M, Claire’s Accessories etc. though we did love Flunch!
And then off for another 40k or so to Alberobello and the Trulli houses.
We found a campsite on the south side of the village called Bosco Selva. It’s basic (no loo seats or loo paper, only Bum Guns… oh no, not again – GRR!) but clean…. Just because the town is medieval doesn’t mean the campsite has to be too!
We chilled for a few hours letting the heat drain from the day and then took the bikes in for the 1.5km ride into town.
And wow! What a bonkers place. The round Trulli houses (singular: Trullo) are famous, but we weren’t prepared for just how many there are. Here’s some pictures…
Love the juxtaposition of very old and very new…
After we’d wandered around for 40 minutes or so, we found a cafe off the tourist route and had a couple of coffees. Though the waitress did her very best to ignore us for more than 20 minutes! And Sue confused the woman at the bar so much, we got a sort of free bottle of water out of her!
On the way back to the bikes we spotted this…
Though the Panda Panda (look at the stitching on the seats) will probably only mean anything to someone who remembers British police cars from the 60’s and 70’s 🤷♂️
Alberobello is extremely touristy! But somehow it still clings to some vestiges of it being a real place, unlike Dubrovnik Old Town or Plitvice Lakes.
Then back on the bikes to the campsite.
After dinner, during our washing up session, we met an English woman who’d been out here in a rental camper van for a well and said she’d not heard any other English accents since landing in Bari. We were happy to oblige with a conversation.
Another highlight of the trip, as well as Alberobello has been the Eurasian Scop Owl that’s been hooting at us all evening!
We’ve now got 2009 miles on the odo, having gone over the 2,000 mile marker today… cue The Pretenders! It sounds better in km though… over 3,200km, but The Pretenders didn’t sing about that so much!
Tomorrow we’re going to head back into Alberobello in the morning to do the Museum and the remaining Trulli houses. We’ll probably also go back in the evening to get that golden hour light again.
Harry’s getting better at Occlumency and is back in with Cho!
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