Over the course of two very busy days, I explored three cities – Monopoli, Alberobello, and Matera – each different, and each fascinating in its own way.
First of all, here’s a quick look at Monopoli, a city on the Adriatic coast where we were docked for two days. Forget about Monopoly, the game. You won’t find Park Place or Boardwalk here. But you will find plenty of pedestrian-only streets in its compact old town. You’ll also find imposing 500-year old sea walls and the remains of the Castello, a castle built by Charles V in the early 1500s. During its long (2500-year) history, Monopoli was ruled by various powers, including the Romans, Byzantines, Normans, Venetians, and Spanish Hapsburgs.
While there were plenty of restaurants, cafés, and shops in the old town, Monopoli wasn’t overrun with tourists. Maybe the season hadn’t yet begun? Whatever the reason, it made my walk through the area especially pleasant. I stopped to admire the façade of the 18th century Baroque cathedral. It stands on the site of a Romanesque basilica dating back to the 12th-15th centuries. Unfortunately, the church wasn’t open so I couldn’t go inside to view the interior decoration.
We actually spent most of the first day about 40 minutes inland, exploring the city of Alberobello. The drive from the coast brought us through a fertile agricultural area. Dry stone walls marked the borders of each field. Through the windows of the bus, I looked out at a sea of olive trees. Some of the trees we saw were so thick and gnarled that they had to be centuries old. In fact, Marco told us that it’s possible to find trees that are 1200 to 2000 years old. Puglia is known for producing very high quality olive oil. And I learned that olives must be pressed within twenty-four hours of their harvesting.
But there were also groves where there were mainly stumps. Marco explained that the olive trees in the region are being ravaged by a serious disease caused by bacteria. The only way to stop the spread is to cut down the affected trees.
Alberobello, located in the heart of olive country, is a popular destination for tourists who come to see its trulli houses. These are houses with distinctive cone shaped roofs, a type of construction that dates back to the 12th century. You can find them throughout the region, but the highest concentration is in Alberobello. They were originally built as shelters for farmers and their animals. The roofs are made of slabs of basalt, a volcanic stone. The keystone (the stone at the top) could be removed to allow smoke to escape. Removal of the keystone had other advantages. In the 15th century, the area was part of the Kingdom of Naples, and everyone who owned a house with a roof was required to pay a certain tax. By removing the stone at the top, the homeowner could avoid paying the tax.
We met with Gianpaolo, who repairs trulli, and saw the interior of one of the houses that’s being restored.
Gianpaolo called our attention to the pinnacles at the top of the roofs. There are a number of traditional pinnacle designs. Likewise, the symbols that were painted on many of the slate roofs have mystical, pagan, or Christian significance. We were able to see a number of these when we stopped at a café on Via Monte and went up to the rooftop terrace for caffe Leccese, a local drink made by pouring coffee over ice cubes in a small glass and adding almond milk.
On the second day we were docked in Monopoli, we ventured into the neighboring region of Basilicata to explore the city of Matera. For many years, this city had an infamous reputation. In fact, it was sometimes referred to as “the shame of Italy.” You’ll soon find out why.
In order to reach Matera, a 90-minute drive from Monopoli, we traveled by bus north along the Adriatic coast to Bari, the capital of Puglia. From Bari, we turned inland and we were soon in Basilicata, a small mountainous region previously known as Lucania, a name derived from the tribe who lived here during the Iron Age. Most of Basilicata’s half a million people make a living from small family farms. Tourism is starting to become a source of revenue. However, the region remains somewhat isolated from the rest of Italy since the infrastructure of the South is not well developed.
I already knew that southern Italy was poor. To illustrate that Basilicata is the poorest of Italy’s poor regions, Marco said that the Mafia doesn’t even have a presence here for the simple reason that the economy is so bad, there’s no money to be made. Despite the poverty, I found Basilicata to be a beautiful area, with vivid yellow broom and brilliant red poppies punctuating the lush green of the hillsides.
So, why was Matera, a town founded by the Romans in the 3rd century BCE, once called “the shame of Italy?” In the 20th century, while Italy was busy industrializing, the 20,000 people of Matera continued to live in primitive conditions. Some lived in hillside caves that had been continuously occupied for over 10,000 years. Others lived in stone “troglodyte” houses carved into the mountainside. Neither type of dwelling had electricity or running water.
The Jewish Italian writer Primo Levi, who was exiled here in 1935 because of his opposition to the Fascist government’s policies, exposed the terrible living conditions of the local people in his documentary novel, Christ Stopped at Eboli. When these conditions finally attracted worldwide notice, the Italian government was under pressure to correct the situation. Beginning in 1952, they forcibly relocated the population of Matera to modern apartments in nearby areas.
If you want to read more about this chapter in Matera’s history, look up the Smithsonian magazine article from February 2014.
Matera is now a growing and attractive city that is increasingly popular with tourists.
We started our exploration of Matera by sampling some typical products of the region, such as peperoni crusco (dried sweet red peppers) and caciocavallo podolico cheese, a cave-aged ball of cheese made from raw cows’ milk.
Right in the center of Matera, we saw ruins from Roman times.
We looked out from a broad plaza across a small canyon at the caves on the opposite hillside. It was hard to imagine that, less than 100 years ago, people made their homes in these caves.
With a local guide, we toured the sassi, the two mountainside neighborhoods crammed full of troglodyte houses. Our local guide pointed out the shells embedded in the stone, a reminder that this area was under water millions of years ago. We were able to get a good look at the interior of one of the houses since some are now open to tourists – for a fee, of course. Some of the troglodyte houses have been restored and converted into shops, cafes and even small hotels.
Walking through town, we came across the Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista (Church of St. John the Baptist), built in the 13th and 18th century in the Apulian Romanesque architectural style.
Walking around town on my own, I was intrigued by clay figures used as bread stamps. In Italian, they’re called timbri (singular: timbro). They’re clay figures with a distinctive image or the initials of the owner carved into the bottom. Traditionally, each household would have its own timbro. Before bringing their unbaked loaves of bread to a communal oven operated by a baker, they would stamp the top of each loaf. This enabled the baker to identify the owner of the finished bread. When I saw a shop with timbri in the window, I thought of my son-in-law, an occasional bread baker, so I stopped and had one carved with his initials on the bottom.
Our hearty lunch included specialities of Matera. For appetizers, we had a fava bean purée with wild chicory and a garnish of crusco peppers, local cheese, lonzo (a cured and smoked pork filet), porchetta (a slow-roasted, well-seasoned roll of pork belly), mushrooms, balls of mozzarella, ricotta, and sour dough bread.
The main course was pasta ferricelli with a sauce of tomatoes, olives, crusco peppers, and breadcrumbs.
The dessert we were served goes by the name of sporcamuss, literally “make a mouth dirty.” It was an appropriate name for the puff pastry filled with cream and covered with powdered sugar.
Somehow, by the time we returned to Monopoli, I managed to regain my appetite in time for that evening’s Home Hosted Dinner, a feature of every OAT adventure.
The family I visited with a small group of fellow travelers lived in a masseria, i.e. a house with fields around it, located about 10-15 minutes outside the center of Monopoli. The owners, Fabrizio and Joyce, told us this property had been in his family for about 100 years. The oldest part of the house dates back to 1600. To generate income, they have made it into an agriturismo, i.e. they host overnight guests.
As we walked around the property, Joyce pointed out an old olive mill and the remains of a small chapel that dates back to 1400.
She also showed us an old Roman road that runs past the property.
We met several animals, and enjoyed a stroll through the garden with its citrus and pomegranate trees.
As the sun was setting, we gathered around the table in the dining room, formerly the stable. The evening meal consisted of a series of small dishes, served one after another, family style. There was fresh cheese, rustic bread, zucchini, peppers, turnovers stuffed with cheese, fried slices of eggplant with a tomato-caper sauce, a kugel-like dish with artichokes, more turnovers, and finally, cake. All of this was accompanied by a dark local wine that we poured into tumblers.
Back on the MV Athena, I fell asleep wondering how I had managed to see so much, learn so much, and eat so much in less than 48 hours.
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