– sun-drenched laneways, foodie delights –
Today was Niran’s birthday and we decided to visit the “white town” of Ostuni, which is about 13 km to the north east from San Michele Salentino, in the direction of the Adriatic coast.
It’s the “white town” because most of the buildings are stuccoed and painted in white – a little like what you might expect to see in Greece.
Ostuni doesn’t have any major attractions – just the usual selection of churches. The fun is in wandering through the small alleyways and getting lost.
We stopped in the basilica for a moment, just before mass started. Not much opportunity for photos inside, but I caught the priest looked pretty jovial just before mass.
The town has its own bridge of sighs just outside the basilica, perhaps used by the priests to scurry from one building to another?
And plenty of photo opportunities:
The main piazza:
And of course the streets themselves:
Plus selfies:
The olive trees scattered all the way to the sea are a fascinating sight, as is the ingenuity of the locals:
We also wandered around the perimeter wall of the town, and caught this lovely shot.
It was getting pretty hot and it was now past midday, so we stopped for a quick lunch at a bakery. This is a “panzerotto”, which is a fried dough pocket with tomato and mozzarella filling. It had just been made and was piping hot, but absolutely delicious!
After lunch, a brief wander through a small flea market in the local park:
And then we stopped at a bar to sample a “caffe leccese” which I consider a brilliant discovery for a hot day. The waiter brought us a glass with almond milk syrup and ice (some cafes also add a slice of lemon rind), a VERY strong cup of espresso coffee and a small glass of water.
The idea is to pour the hot coffee over the ice. It’s like an affogato but the taste is more complex because of the addition of the bitter sweet almond syrup. A quick stir, and yum! The idea is to follow it up with a quick gulp of water to cleanse the palate. I promised myself I would track the almond milk syrup down post-haste so that I could repeat this delectable experience at home! (Which I did the next day in Martina Franca!)
We had to get home early-ish so that we could freshen up and then drive to Niran’s birthday dinner. But before we left, Ni got a moment to take some photos of the house and Calum in his natural state:
We had booked dinner at Masseria al Frontoio which was north of Ostuni. We left as the sun started to set, arriving at 8pm for a tour of the farm, followed by an 8 course meal proudly prepared by a group of local women, paired with three local wines. The boys are looking happy and expectant!
The masseria cultivates many of the ingredients used in our meal and prides itself on using locally sourced ingredients cooked using age old recipes. It’s also an olive farm (as most of this area in Puglia appears to be), and they produce their own olive oil. On the matter of olive farms, I have never seen so many olive trees in my life! Almost every inch of land outside the towns is cultivated. There is the occasional almond tree or fig tree, but olives are by far the most prevalent crop. And the Pugliesi take enormous pride in the quality of their product.
Anyway we had a wonderful dinner of good, solid home cooked dishes and wonderful setting in the masseria’s courtyard.
We rolled out of there quite stuffed and I think Niran was happy with how he had passed his birthday.
One last night-time shot of Ostuni as we drove by and then home at about 1am – a long day!
