Day 361: Castel del Monte

Time to leave Apulia, the heel province of Italy's boot. Set off around 10, heading roughly north back along the coast towards Bari. Our main stop for the day was a world heritage site called Castel del Monte, a large hilltop castle, where we arrived after about 90 minutes of driving.

The castle itself is quite unique, with a distinct octagonal shape, and each corner of the octagon has an octagonal tower. It's a real oddity of late Middle Ages castle design, and has influences from both northern Europe and the Holy Land as well. Apparently the driving force behind the construction, Emperor Frederick II, was inspired by the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (also octagonal) which he'd seen while on Crusade in the east.

We wandered around the outside, but it was very blustery and cold so didn't linger. Paid to go inside though we knew there wasn't much to see. Just a small octagonal courtyard and sixteen trapezoidal rooms spread across two floors. There was a rooftop as well but you can't go out on that. A little frustrating too as there was a large tour group going around at much the same time and operating at typical Italian volume.

Finished up our filming and headed back to the car where Schnitzel was waiting patiently. From here we drove westwards for another 90 minutes to the town of Matera where we'll be staying for the next couple of days. Found our place with no problem and checked in, though parking was a bit difficult; I first parked in a no parking zone which our hosts said would be fine, but I decided not to risk it and moved the car.

Stayed in for the rest of the day as it was bitterly cold here - the weather seems to have turned a little bit, and since we're both elevated and inland it makes it worse. Home cooked pasta for dinner, as we'd stopped at a supermarket on the way in.Read more