– exploring traditions, faith and livelihoods –
This was our last full day in Puglia. We decided to stick close to home and visit a couple of closer villages with the aim of getting back early and spending some time relaxing around the house.
I’m going to start with a couple of photos of the olive farm that surrounded the house as they played a huge role in setting the ambience of our stay and deserve a mention.
Sadly, a photo can’t portray how expansive they were!
Now turning to today’s itinerary. The first stop was Martina Franca. But I can’t keep going with this post until I’ve dealt with one issue – the prevalence of the name Franca in this part of the world! Well…at least it’s use in the name of two towns we’ve visited – which is two more than I’ve ever encountered before. Franca (I’m addressing my sister this time) pay attention! Apparently, historically, the use of the name “Franca” in Southern Italy meant a place designated by the authorities as “free of taxes”. As a result of their special status these towns thrived and became very wealthy. Thought that one might especially strike your tax funny bone Frank (if such a thing could exist)!
Like most of the other towns we visited, Martina Franca was located on a hill surrounded by fairly ordinary modern outskirts, with an interesting historic centre at its core. Again, apart from the main church, there were no major attractions of note, but an interesting labyrinth of cobbled streets and pretty houses. In retrospect, I would say it could be avoided as it’s a larger town with less architectural interest than say the much smaller and more charming Locorotondo, or the similarly sized Ostuni, which is just dazzling and more imposing in terms of its state of historical preservation.
But, let’s get on with it.
The first place we visited was the Cathedral, which had these two especially beautiful statues which were worthy of note, and a fine side chapel, but otherwise was not all that different to the many other churches we had visited.
There were the usual baroque sculptural touches on the outside of the church. In this case, a carving of the patron Saint Martin giving his coat to a beggar:
And then there were the streets:
And this little cutie made an appearance:
Another Church we visited – sorry I’m losing track of all their names at this stage – but it was notable for its domed ceiling over the altar:
Pretty grand for a relatively small town – I guess that tax free status played a role!
We decided to have lunch at another small town, Cisternina which wasn’t especially noteworthy, except that Niran got to feast on the local specialty known as “bombette” – skewered balls of steak. Then we made our way home stopping at the cemetery at Ceglie Messapica on the way. Probably a bit morbid for most, but I enjoy visiting cemeteries and comparing how various people treat their dead. In Southern Italy, they’re shown great respect and their cemeteries are like miniature towns with streets lined with family vaults, each vying to be grander than its neighbour. Here are a couple of photos to give you an idea of what I mean:
Once home, we prepared a simple dinner, munched on watermelon and played briscola into the night. Miriam tried to teach us how to play Scoppa, but I think it may take a bit of time to get my head around this one! Then bed for an early departure in the morning.
