Friday 21 June

This was a whole day out, picked up after breakfast by two drivers and cars; one of the drivers was from yesterday and he was asked to settle his driving down, having gone through stop signs, hands off the wheel when he was talking, and generally not been very safe we felt.    His wife, driving our half of the group, was excellent though the aircon wasn’t reaching the back so we had the side windows open all the way as some didn’t feel too well on the bumpy roads.  

We stopped first in Galatina, we all went first to a church (possibly the cathedral but it’s a bit hard to tell, they are all large and mostly extensively decorated) and I have to say that despite giving the cathedral in Trani top marks with its simple white walls and stained dark wooden ceiling, I was blown away in this one by the wall-to-wall-to-ceiling frescoes.  It was like looking at page after page of an enormous illuminated manuscript with people doing everything from making cement and carrying it on their backs up a ladder, to Templar knights, to depictions of bible stories, and to men hiding in a corner listening to what was happening in the next fresco where people were in some kind of meeting.    Beautiful.    Most had been restored but there were some small, original pieces if you looked hard enough.

We were also able to go into the cloisters which were simple, cream stone, but all around the walls were paintings depicting all the things you should do in your lives such as abstinence (she had chicken legs on a plate beside her), piety and so forth.  The paintings were very graphic, including one of a man with a nasty big ulcer on his ankle, surrounded by people carrying bowls and looking worried.   I think that seeing all these paintings of people in contemporary clothes and doing jobs common at the time, is all part of the way the church illustrated bible stories but also how they showed what bad things would happen to you if you didn’t live your life properly (i. e. give massive amounts of money to the church to help you up the ladder to heaven?).  

Second stop was at a seaside town, Otranto, with the option of swimming during our three-hour stay but we decided to just potter.     We parked by the castle then walked down to the church, this one is famous for the mosaics covering the whole of the floor, in perfect condition and walking in you wanted to see it all but the central part was roped off and had chairs set out in it.    There were bible stories in mosaics (Cain and Abel), animals (stags, and even two elephants right at the front door).     The church had been renovated and a lot of the bling toned down or removed, but there were some side chapels which were decorative.   One of these had three glass panels about 3m high and filled with alternating rows of skulls and bones, skulls and bones.    The crypt was much more simple with many columns re-used from earlier times, some with decorations etched into them such as a cross, and one with what looked like garlands of flowers.   The main ceiling was unusual in that it looked like very delicate ceramic bowls set into the ceiling, a sort of blue-grey with gold and white, very striking.  I suppose it was plasterwork, I liked it very much.

We came out a low-down door onto a street leading to the waterfront where Jacopo left us to our own devices.   Some went swimming at a beach a few hundred meters away, or paddled by the sea wall but we just wandered and eventually ended up back at the castle so had a pizza lunch along the street and then went into the castle to have a look.   It was built in 1480 after the Turkish invasion in memory of 500 martyrs killed at that time and is the biggest in Puglia.    It’s another empty shell but is used as an exhibition centre and has information boards in the ground floor rooms, one of which has a well-kept fresco on the ceiling which you almost miss – not all of us look up when we go into a room.   The storyboards told the history of the castle through the ages, quite a busy and bloody place.   

Up the stairs was a main reception room with blocks of carved stone removed from various parts of the castle, and with stairs leading to the dungeon (guided tours only).  Up another level the roof gave good views out to the marina and to the sea, and two more sets of stairs led to a lookout point though they were blocked off, that would have been quite a sight from there.    I stayed on the second level and had a look at an exhibition of Modigliani’s paintings of women and stories about his sitters, or muses you could say.  Many nudes.  It’s there to mark the 100^th anniversary of his death, the pictures are photographic reproductions but it was worth a look.  

They also had several rooms showcasing the Grotta de Cervi which is in this part of Puglia, prehistoric caves discovered by a group of men several years ago.  They explored and found cave paintings dating back at least to 12000 BC, as well as many artefacts such as arrowheads and pottery.   The caves are closed now except for research and special reasons because the paintings were being damaged, but there were lots of photos and explanations of the symbols; the man shooting an arrow found etched into a piece of pottery is something of an icon in the exhibit.      Andrea at the museum told us that by rights the men who discovered the cave should be entitled to a large Government reward and they have been fighting for it, but they too have been shafted and have got nothing.      

On the way back to Lecce we stopped at a lake which I think was created by a bauxite mine, and when it rains all the minerals leach down from the lakesides and turn the water purple.   It’s well known for its reeds and ducks in the lake I think, and the soil is very orange so must be mineral-rich.  The heat had pretty much defeated me by then and it was all I could do to walk down the dirt track and back – hard to be enthusiastic unfortunately.

Back at the hotel we had a couple of hours to relax and cool down, then just after 7 walked to the main city gates where we met Pat from the tour group and she joined us for dinner.   It was lovely just wandering through the little lanes at that time, cooler temperature, the eating places were setting up outside for dinner and it was all very relaxed.    We were having a look around when we came upon all but one of the tour group (one had stayed back to catch up on sleep), they’d gone to the restaurant in two groups after shopping and wandering, and liked the look of the place so stayed on their recommendation.   It was a nice setting too with a big church across the road, a park on the other side so it was quite cool, and we could see the wedding party when they came out.  It must be the wedding season in Puglia as we’ve seen several on our travels.  Patricia bought a very nice silver and turquoise necklace from this gentleman, and I bought a red wooden necklace.  She had fun bargaining him down from 40 Euro to 15, and he whipped out his cigarette lighter to prove the turquoise beads weren’t just lumps of plastic.  We had an excellent meal though Pete was defeated by the size of his mixed grill; he managed several hundred grams of steak, lamb, pork, meat balls, but could barely put a dent in his fries.  Yes, he rolled back to the hotel and slept like a baby after that effort.  Definitely no gelato on his way home.