Rental Car. Part 1. First Destination.

 When I mentioned that there is so much gorgeousness within a 15 minuted train ride from here, I was firstly thinking about Alberobello, home of the Trulli houses. Bearing in mind the throw away comment from our walking tour guide guy in Bari (he said 'so many people go to see the trulli, take a photo and what? what? just to tick that off the list? what do you see of the people, there are no people left to see...' you get the drift. But still, I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

Train ride, opposite direction from Martina Franca (also a gorgeous hill town), 12 minutes, and as we got closer to Alberobello, the little piles of rocks in the fields (pagghiara in Lecce)  became more sophisticated,  combined into substantial dwellings - arrived at the station..

... and bingo! it rained. Hard. Luckily I was just beside a cafe so took the opportunity to have a coffee and a pasticciotto  - these are little pastries with a choice of creme custard, nutella (ick) or pistachio creme (also ick - don't even think about it).

Looking up at the hill of little conical houses, the streets were absolutely quiet - within ten minutes of wandering, the tour groups had arrived, with swarms of people moving everywhere.

There are symbols on some of the roofs - you'll spot them - and I took this photo of an explanation of what they mean.

I was trying to work it all out but it was hard to stand still in the tide of people, you just kinda had to keep moving.

And it was just as the tour guide in Bari said (of course). Every trulli was B & B accommodation or a little shop. The very few that were still private residents were obviously struggling with the situation with 'privat' signs and chains across doorways and accessible areas, because, sadly, the tourists think it is all like a theme park and just wander down paths and peer into doorways.

It was sort of quaint, but Locorotondo is much nicer. Happy that I didn't opt to stay there. But I can put a tick next to 'seen trulli'! It was worth seeing them, but a couple of hours there was enough.

This fabulous selfie is to show you the actual size of the doors in these houses. I would have bumped my head every time. I think Italians were shorter back then.

My new best friends from Sicily...

Please see if you can enlarge this photo to read the English - if not, let me tell you that if you stay in this Albergo Diffuso, you are promised a 'fairy tale with a happy ending'... 'which unfolds in a mixture of creativity, passion and emotion..'. Perhaps asking too much from life  - I'm not 100% sure that would be the outcome from me having a night in the albergo.. Enough said.

This display was a nice visual of all of the various cheeses in the area.

Prego - I lost interest and wandered towards the station and spotted a poster advertising a Frida Kahlo exhibition! I tried to go to an exhibition in Auckland but the queues were too long the day I went there - so.. in I went. It was photos of her life, none of her artwork. But heyho 14 euro for a 5 minute wander.

Anyone else see the similarity to Danica? or is it just the eyebrows and dark eyes? (the first photo, the poster).

Those cheek bones, so beautiful. 

So that Dear Readers was that. More interesting things in store in the afternoon.