Cycling in Puglia Italy, Chapter 1

 So many memories, so much to tell.  It will take a few posts.

Last I wrote we had just arrived in Italy... We were going to Cycle Puglia, the region at the heel of the boot.

We had arranged to spend a few days adjusting before we started the bike tour, and boy are we glad we did!  Matera was fascinating and a fun place to explore.  We were staying right by the Church of Purgatory.  And just a few feet from that were incredible views of the cave towns.

When we added the two extra nights we had to take what we could get.  The room was huge and served us well until we moved into a smaller room that had been reserved through Puglia Cycle Tours.

Here are pictures of the Church of Purgatory from the outside.

The motel arranged for us to take a walking tour.  It was very interesting.  We got to walk down into the cave city, the richer part of the two "Sassi" regions.  

She told us that in 1953 the leader of the country came to visit the area and was so disgusted by the way the people were living that he began a program of moving them out and into an apartment complex outside of the city.  It was a forced removal of the residents.

He was concerned because child and mother mortality was very high.  The sewage was an open ditch that ran down the ravine into the river.  The people were living in small spaces with their animals... We are not talking just dogs and cats, but donkeys, chickens, and pigs.  The heat from the animals helped keep the families warm and safer, but the moisture was causing harmful mold on the ceilings and walls.

By 1968 the last person was moved out.  It was very hard on the people, as you can imagine.  Their houses were built with little courtyards between entrances.  They would gather often in their little groups, like an extended family.  Now they were away from community and their farms and way of life.  The government had to lock them out because they kept trying to go back.

Below is a picture of the river ravine.  Across from the Sassi are more caves dug into the cliffs.  We could see some.  The guide said some were churches with frescos.  Originally the cave churches across the valley were dug by monks. The better preserved frescos were cut out and moved into the local art museum.

There is a single road running through the Sassi.  The government created it to pave over the former open sewer.

Looking at the picture below, you see walls, but go into the door, and you are in a cave attached to other caves.

They had water  collection from their roofs into cisterns.  They went on to dig and create community cisterns they could use in times of drought.

The people in the wealthier side of the Sassi didn't move into the government housing and therefore were able to keep ownership of their property while buying something else in town.  Then, eventually, these people could use their property in the Sassi for business or sell it to someone else for business purposes.  People are allowed to use the places but only for businesses, not for living.  There are restaurants and shops and lots of B&B type places.  And... of course churches.  In Italy, we have always found lots of churches.

In Italy we knew we would find our choices for eating would be limited to breads, Pizza, and Pasta dishes due to leaning vegetarian.  We enjoyed those dishes a lot.  But we also found other things to eat.  We both avoided the horse meat and the octopus.  

Having the extra days in Matera meant we got a chance to hike down the ravine and up the other side to see the caves there with open fronts.  Some of them churches with remnants of frescos.

I was fascinated by all the snails on the dry vegetation.  I found out later that the area had not had rain for four months.

We hiked over a swinging bridge to get across the river 

At the top of the far side of the ravine we looked back toward the city we could see some caves and churches next to town.  So we hiked back down the ravine and up the city side and found  a couple more old churches.

...With frescos.

That was over 6 miles of climbing and descending.

Dining one night we got a carafe of wine in a restaurant with only three tables.  It came in a pitcher that seemed impossible to pour without dribbling wine.

The day before we started biking, our ebikes were delivered along with a phone loaded with our Ride with GPS routes.

Our last night in Matera we went to the art museum.  I was most impressed with the framed window.  Lol.

And the brightly painted walls that set off the paintings.

Matera is known for its bread.  The restaurants displayed beautiful hunks of bread.

Our first day of riding and it rained to start out.

And I got a flat tire within six miles of our start.

Four cars stopped as we were working checking on us.  Nice!

When our route took us into old towns with narrow streets and tall buildings, the GPS couldn't find us.

We were amazed at the amount of litter along the country roads. 

I was still getting used to the GPS problems in the city when I tried taking us down an old aquaduct or sewer.  

We caught the mistake quickly.

We were running out of power on the GPS phone they gave us.  We stopped and took pictures of the turn by turn directions just in case.  And I used Google maps on my phone to find our lodging during the last few kilometers.

Our first nights lodging was awesome.  We were on an old olive tree farm.  The trees were crooked, split and gnarly. 

The ancient trees were still very productive.

The farm served us dinner.  It also had a group coming in to celebrate a birthday after us.  We got to enjoy the band as it warmed up.

Our room was in the old horse stables.

The farm also had grapes, pears, apples, oranges, limes and lemons, and pomegranate.

The bee boxes were painted in fun designs and set out low to the ground.

They also had a male and female pig and three piglets.

We saw a lot of places decorated with these pretty green bottles.  I am guessing they held olive oil.

In the dining area were pictures from an archeological dig that occured in the property in the 2000's.

One crypt that was opened had been sealed so well that the bones still existed after 2000 years.

The dig found crypts  from 2500 years ago and from a more recent time.  

 

We were so grateful that the cycle touring company arranged to have a translator come and explain all this to us.  She reminded of my friend Jean.

She told us that the neighboring property had a dig too when the pipeline came through and they found a part of the Apian way, the ancient Roman road built from Rome to Brindisi to facilitate trade and move the Roman Army in their many conquests.

She walked out with us in the rain to talk about the trees.  She said it makes about 300 years from the start of an olive tree spitting to it being split.  She said the two sides start moving away from each other, leading to the nickname of walking trees.

It amazes us that there is so much ancient stuff that this property was using ancient tombs as planters and the cover slabs as benches and picnic tables.

Our translator told us sometimes the trees twist instead of split.  She said the trees are so old on this property that the government protects them, monitors and studies them.

One of the fruit trees was housing thousands of tiny snails.

Second Day of Cycling in Puglia

It started out fun and sunny.  Not so much later in the day.

We got to ride a bit of bicycle trail that included riding over an old bridge 

Every day on the rides we passed lots of olive groves.

We encountered our first of many Trulli.   The old ones were built with local stone and no mortar.  Many have a decoration at the peak.

We were about to run out of power on the GPS phone in spite of being fully powered when we started out.  We took pictures again of the turn by turn directions.  And I Google mapped our route on my phone.  My mistake is not double and triple checking that the address and that the distances were the same.

It started to rain a cold rain.

This phone booth was repurposed to a little free library.

The GPS phone went completely dead.

We continued on using my phone.  It seemed a lot longer ride than I had thought it would be.  It was cold and pouring and we just wanted to get there so we didn't stop to or double check my phone.

We got to a place where my phone said we had arrived.  Hmmm.  I call the B&B.  We are here but which door do we go to?  He said he didn't see us.  Take a picture of a church.  I take a picture of the closest church.


Anyway, we had somehow ended up in the wrong town.  We got a call from Cycling Puglia.  "How did you get there?" They asked.  By this time we were tired, cold, wet, and just wanting a warm shower.  We had lost patience.  The GPS ran out of power, we told her.

For $30 a van could come get us and our bikes and take us to the right location.  Yes! We said.  We found a coffee shop and directed them to pick us up there.

The guy driving the van apologized for the GPS dying.  We should have called when that happened.  They will deliver a newer fully charged phone, he said.  They have been doing these tours for 10 years and have a good reputation.  

I was feeling pretty embarrassed to have gotten us into such a mess.  Of course I should have called them when the gps was running out of power.  I should have paid more attention to the distance we had left.  I should have double and triple checked the address of our destination.  My excuse, it was raining and hard to search for stuff on the phone. Not a good excuse.  Thanks to Steve for never getting on my case about it.  He was often totally reliant on my directions during our rides and he kept inside any negative comments, thank you.

We again had great lodgings.  This time we checked into the reception in The old part of Putignano.

The receptionist walked us several blocks to our apartment. 

Outside our apartment window we overlooked a stone roof and across the street was a former convent being converted into apartments and shops and more.

Every place we stayed provided is a buffet at breakfast.  In Putagnano the reception looked down at a meeting room.  The table, Steve pointed out, was an old wood working table.

We didn't have time for a hot shower right away because we had a wine tasting to attend.  We quickly put on dry clothes and headed out.  It turned out to be a private tasting just for us of natural wines from the area.

Here is a map and stats from our extended days ride from Steve's watch.

Let's make that the end of Chapter 1 on our ride through the Puglia area of Italy.

Other updates, we both were still coughing and blowing at this stage in the trip.

Remember to vote early for the November 3rd midterm election.