Friday, September 26, 2024

After a breakfast at the hotel, we dumped our stuff in the car but had to check out one more cave.

Matera had an enormous public cistern for drinking water – Palombaro Lungo.

It was the combination and deepening of various cisterns, wine cellars and other structures. It was massive. People would lower buckets from the main square to get water out.

This was in use until an aqueduct was built. The structure was massive.

After wrapping up we got in the car and set off for Alberobello – the Trulli HQ. We got there and it indeed had a lot of Trulli and tourists.

Now, it may have been a failure on our part but this one was a bust. The houses were cool to look at but this was about all we could figure out. It also must have been the hottest part of the day. We wandered around a bit and did take part in the towns past time – tourist gift shopping. After getting a few neat things, we decided to take off. It seems that the whole town is just a collection of tourist shops along with lots of tourists.

We drove on to Polignano a Mare – our first city in the east coast of Italy. After a quick and yummy sandwich from Olio su Pane we headed for Lama Mochile. This rock beach sites in a ravine and is quite striking and busy.

While there we explored the tunnel that had been carved out of the rocks. It led to a ledge where people got to rocks for some cliff diving and such. Pretty fun place with lots of folks.

After a bit at the beach we ventured onward toward our hotel – Hotel Baia delle Zagare

Getting to the hotel took a while as it is out on the peninsula that is called the spur of the boot – Gargano. Most of it is a national park but there are lots of interesting spots. We decided to just take it easy and hang out there.

Overall it was amazing with sweeping views and quiet.

For dinner we decided to venture out and found a small local restaurant. It was good and had a very local vibe – Ristorante San Michele.

It was a nice day and looking forward to the beach tomorrow.