Oops, Sorry out of order

Tuesday, May 5---afternoon

We met Daniel, the Tour Guide to get our tickets and bus assignments for the trip to Alberobello. We had little idea what to expect as we climbed on the bus for an hour ride to the town of Alberobello with a local guide, whose English took some getting used to. I had to train my ear to hear what she meant rather than what she was saying. Her pronunciation was different. For the word territory she said- te-RE-to-ry and she said the syllable “a” or “uh” after many words. Some examples are wordsa, facta, parentsa, and subjectsa. As I said, once I trained my ears to listen, she was very understandable. I admire anyone who will talk for an hour in a language other than the one in which they learned to speak.

She shared WAY, WAY, too much history. Sixth Century, 8th Century, Byzantine, I am afraid I mentally dozed and looked out the windows at the vineyards and olive trees. Some of the vineyards were covered with netting, and she told us that these grapes are being raised for food; the uncovered vines of grapes are destined to be wine.

This little town we visited is a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site. When I asked what that signifies, I was told that there is something that needs to be preserved and can’t be duplicated. This place certainly fits the description. It is a town of “trulli”—teeny little houses with cone shaped roofs, which were first built with a dry stone stacking construction. (Dry means no mortar). The old part of the town is comprised of these charming little houses. A picture is much more explanatory, so I’ll insert several here.





Some of these houses are inhabited as residences, some are storage for tools and some are shops. An interesting, and athletic walking tour. Some folks with walking difficulties stopped at the bottom of the hill and waited for the rest of us to come back from seeing the church of Saint Anthony. This church is quite old but the most interesting feature was the altar—a huge stone with a board over the top.



We did a “tasting”- which seem to be a big deal here, this time pasta, a little roll of meat, and wine. After that we shopped, bought a cute baby item, and some luscious gelato (ice cream) N had peach and mine was called “wafer” but was really cookies and cream.

The public facilities (restrooms) were welcome and charged adults $.50 (children- $.30) N had to scrounge up the fifty cents from one of our Bwd friends. All he had was rather large bills (Euros)

This area’s main industry is tourism, but they also produce mozzarella cheese made w/ buffalo’s milk, olive oil, cherries, ham, and wedding dresses. I know, who would have thought of Italy having buffalo, but the local guide says they do. They also have lots of prickly pear cactus—another commodity I thought was native to the western United States. And I have pictures of the cactus. We were told that they ate them, and made liquor from the “leaves” also.


We saw lots of olive trees –these are used for the oil- not to eat. They were described to us as “sculptured by nature (the wind). My word for these trees is gnarly- not the “60’s” word, but twisted and tortured looking.

Wasn’t aware that we were seeing the Adriatic Sea, but the local guide talked to us about the importance of the sea trade and we drove by a town named “Monopli”

The bus let us off in Bari to go see the Basilica of St. Nicholas. Yep, Santa Claus---but we know he is not dead. The story goes that some pirates stole St. Nicholas’ bones from Mira, Turkey and gave them to the Benedictine monks in Bari. This Basilica was built to house these relics. We met our tour guide, Danny there and he escorted us into the church as Mass was being held. Those in there were not happy to have us trot down the side aisle and go downstairs to the tomb. We were quiet, and didn’t take pictures, but some of our group were in shorts and that is frowned on in churches. Anyway, I felt a little awkward going in and out under the stares of about 250 worshipers. This is a special week for this church, because May 9th is the anniversary of the date the bones were given to the Benedictines. There was applause during the “homily” which I thought was strange.

The ship was waiting for us because our side trip to the Basilica took longer than expected. We got back to our rooms just in time for the lifeboat drill. In case you are interested, in case of emergency we are designated for lifeboat #14.

Supper again, with 7 courses—I skipped the pasta course- so I only had 6. The sunset from the dining room was amazing.



We have a briefing tomorrow at 9 all about Greece. And a wake-up call for 7. Good night, I’m going to bed. --altho’ it is only 2:30 pm Texas time. And we lose ANOTHER hour tonight by going to Greece.