Altamura

Today’s destination was the town of Altamura, a city and commune of Apulia in southern Italy. Dating back to the 6th to 3rd century BC, it was our pit stop on our way to Alberobello. Thankfully today’s drive wasn’t too long or too busy as we were heading towards the “less popular” end of Italy, and most of it was country driving.

The only hiccup we had was trying to understand the parking in Altamura, but luckily some very helpful Italians stopped and tried to assist us. After a few failed attempts, a lady in the Chemist next to where we had parked used Google translate and we were finally able to rest easy that our car wasn’t going to get towed overnight. We love how helpful the Italians are!!

Having arrived mid-afternoon, the shops were closed, and the streets were virtually empty as everyone had retired to their home for riposo, or siesta as we know it as. It was quite an odd feeling walking through an almost empty town as we explored the area. The only people we saw were gathered around the impressive looking churches in the main street as there were weddings being held at every one of them. Four weddings, each very different to the other. It was a cool thing to see.

Altamura is a very clean town and has a lovely historic feel to it. The one thing that did surprise us though was the surveillance cameras covering the main street through town and going back a couple of streets either side. Some of the shops seemed to have excessive security doors for the area so it did make us wonder about the criminal activity. It was a bit disconcerting.

Altamura is known for its particular quality of bread called Pane di Altamura but do you think we could find somewhere open to buy some to try. We tried when we arrived and again in the morning before we left but we were out of luck. Maybe next time.

After we had explored the town, we decided we should conform with the Italian tradition of retiring for riposo, so we unpacked and relaxed in our accommodation for the afternoon. Our accommodation was the Bed & Breakfast del Corso and we were very impressed with our room and the facilities. And bonus for Brad was the communal kitchen which was very well equipped with lots of delicious snacks.

After a relaxing afternoon we headed out to find somewhere for dinner. We still haven’t got the hang of the Italian way of having dinner after 8pm at night so the streets were still fairly quiet when we headed out. There didn’t appear to be a lot of places here with casual dining in the square and a lot of the restaurants had very closed off frontages. We decided to try Ristorante del Corso for dinner and thankfully, we made a good choice.

From a very unassuming exterior, the interior was cool, with great artwork on the walls, a wall of wine bottles on display and a funky looking drinks waiter statue. It had a very elegant and posh feel to it. The very well-dressed staff did not speak English so it made for an interesting night. but we managed to order our food. Ordering wine was another story. We asked for a glass of vino and over came the sommelier in his flash suit with a selection of Italian wines which he then started describing in Italian. When we asked if he spoke English, he replied with “I choose” and immediately opened a bottle and poured us a glass. Without knowing prices we were a bit apprehensive it was going to be an expensive night so drank our wine very slowly. However, we ended up being blown away by how inexpensive it was. We were thinking €100 plus but our total bill was only €44 – we should have had more wine! That was for an extremely delicious main meal, dessert, wine and coffee. And I had the most amazing spinach gnocchi, that just melted in my mouth - it was the best on the entire trip.

The big surprise for us was when we left the restaurant. What had been a virtually empty square was packed full of people. From a quiet quaint town to a place full of vibrancy, it was a big contrast. The Italians really do live later than we do. They were all heading out as we were heading back to our accommodation, however they are all asleep when we start our days and those are the times we get to see the sites without the hustle and bustle.

We awoke to a foggy morning, great for some impressive photos, and after a delicious breakfast of a croissant and coffee at a nearby café, we hit the road again.Read more