SMALL TOWN APPEAL IN APULIA ENCHANTS
CASALINI – SMALL TOWN APPEAL IN APULIA.
5th October:
THE TRULLO CAVE
An expert in many craft fields, our holiday visitor Vivien likes to know how things work. To introduce her to some of the small towns in Apulia – instead of revisiting Alberobello, which we felt she would find ‘too commercial’, we took her instead to Casalini, just outside Cisternino, to see the actual restored trullo where we had stayed for a week in 2011.
We used the SS172 as it was more or less a direct route, curving through the countryside, where Vivien was tantalised by passing glimpses of restored 14th century trulli away off in the fields – and a few on the road. Just past the small town of Putignano we were delighted to come across brown signposts that pointed to ‘the Trullo Cave’.
It involved only a tiny deviation from the road, and when we reached there, we found a triple-roofed trullo standing in a small garden.
The reception room was empty. We pushed the bell for attendance, and turned our attention to some specimen cases holding attractive minerals – quartzes, etc. I started reading the wall plaques. The guide appeared, and he pointed out to me a photograph showing a somewhat rickety-looking spiral staircase (the type with open treads, which I hate, suffering as I do from vertigo).
“I don’t think you could manage that with a walking stick,” he said. “In any case, the floor of the cave is very uneven in places.”
He said the tour should take no more than an hour, so I happily sat on a bench outside in the garden, reading what literature I could find about the place and its surrounding area. The others came out full of enthusiasm for this small and unusual museum.
Grotto del Trullo. SS172 Tratto Putignano-Turi, Putignano, Italy
WARNING:
Much more publicised are the famous Grotte di Castellana, which certainly sound marvellous.
THEY ARE NOT SUITABLE IF YOU ARE NOT CAPABLE OF DESCENDING AND ASCENDING MANY STEPS – AND CANNOT WALK TWO MILES AND BACK? (WE NEVER FOUND OUT.)
Graham and I went there, and queued for about twenty minutes to buy tickets, only to be told that we would have to wait two hours for an English guide. So we sat about the courtyard, then decided on buying a sandwich at one of the rather over-priced cafes in the outer entrance. We surveyed the tourist shops, but there was nothing to tempt us.
Returning, we found quite a long queue had already formed to buy tickets. Eventually we reached the window.
“My wife has difficulty walking too far,” Graham said, indicating my stick. “Will the caves be difficult for her?”
“No problem,” he was told, so Graham bought our tickets, which were very expensive for Italy. We were waved to the far corner of the large, bare square, and followed others to the entrance to the caves. When we got there I surveyed with horror the endless staircase leading down.
“I can’t manage that,” I said, “and what about climbing them back up?”; but we were pushed down for a way until we came to a landing with an attendant. She was most unhelpful; did not tell us that there was a lift (elevator) and grew annoyed when we fought our way back up to the open air.
Then we had to join the diminished queue to reach the ticket office where Graham, after a heated argument, got his money back.
Nevertheless, if you can manage them, they do look amazing on Google.
www.grottedicastellana.it/en/the-caves/
CASALINI
SMALL TOWN APPEAL INCLUDES HOSPITALITY – WE REVISIT A GREAT HOSTESS
We arrived in the small town of Casalini, and turned into the mini-supermarket run by Jean-Vito, so well-known when we stayed at Riposo del Vento in one of Francesca’s trulli for a week in 2011. We were disappointed that he was not there – instead, his rather severe mother served us. We bought some more of his own cold-pressed olive oil. This time it was in a can, and Mamma charged a high price for it.
Now Graham and I took a little time to decide on the right lane up to Francesca’s complex of restored trulli. They are dotted in a beautiful exotic garden created by her father – a landscape architect.
As soon as we parked the car Francesca, our architect hostess, now a good friend, greeted us warmly and suggested we take coffee with her; but first, she took Vivien all around the site.
HOW APULIA TRULLI ARE CONSTRUCTED
Francesca explained to Vivien all the building techniques (and the reasons for them), of these medieval stone beehive houses. We all then enjoyed coffee and home-made cakes in Francesca’s newly-extended and now very elegant modern house. We greeted her husband, Juan, perched on a ladder doing something to a window. Then we hugged the stately Bea, Francesca’s housekeeper for the complex. Bea had especially cooked Polish bacon and eggs (very different from the full English) for Graham’s breakfast when we stayed there. After coffee – Vivien studied an unrestored trullo a few fields away from Francesca’s property.
A SURPRISE INVITATION
Francesca drew me aside and invited Graham and me to go back and stay for two nights as her guests. Wasn’t that really kind and generous!
It is a special delight to stay there, especially if you are a lover of history, gardens and beauty; and you like to make new friends.
(Francesca at Riposo del Vento, Casalini nr Cisternino, Apulia.)
We said goodbye and drove further down the coast to stay for two nights with Lucio, the friend of Peppino who lived Way Down South near Otranto.
Text by – Jackie Usher, SWWJ. (aka author Debbie Darkin, & ‘Graham Liverpool’ on Trip Advisor.)
Photographs by – Graham Usher.
