We left Rome at 8.00am. We had a long drive today traveling from Rome to Alberobello across the Apennine Mountains (the 'spine of Italy') but we had a pit stop every 1.5 hours. The first being toilet and drink stop; the second being for lunch; and the third being to look around the UNESCO World Heritage listed fortress of Castel del Monte in Andria in the Puglia (Apulia) region.

Castle del Monte is an unusual, octagonal citadel, built in the 13th century . It is one of the best preserved medieval castles in the region. After exploring the castle, I managed to find my way back down to the inner courtyard without any difficulties. However, there are at least 6 doors leading off the inner courtyard with only one of those doors leading to the castle's exit. I have to admit that a mild state of panic had started to set in after trying three of these doors and still not finding the exit. A coffee and cigarette at the café on site was well warranted after I finally did manage to get out! 

Free WiFi on the bus! I wish we had been told this last night as I would have brought my Tablet with me in the bus rather than packing it in my luggage and caught up with my blogging. Australia has a long way to go in relation to Internet connections. In Venice, every cafe and restaurant had free WiFi.

The scenery crossing the Apennines was really lovely. The hills are alive, not with the sound of music (wrong country) but with villages and towns .

We arrived in Alberobello at 5.45pm. It had obviously been raining very heavily and we were told it had only stopped about an hour before we arrived. While it was no longer raining, it was bitterly cold. I've been very lucky with the weather - warm, sunny days up to now.

Alberobello is a UNESCO heritage listed town because of its Trulli houses. Trullo is Italian for 'cone' and the houses look like bee hives. After leaving Castel del Monte we started to see Trulli houses but Alberobello has the greatest concentration of Trulli houses. The whole city centre is a mass of these houses - a mass of whitewashed bee hives.

We are all staying in our own individual Trullo in different parts of the town and they are truly delightful - very unusual and very quaint.

There is no WiFi in the houses - only in the office of the agency that lets out the Trulli houses. I was told WiFi won't go through the stone walls. I find this hard to believe even though the walls are a metre thick.

What I learnt today...
Mosquitos are very popular in Sicily.