On the road to hobbit town

 Wed Oct 12 - 5th day of tour 

Actually, on the road to Alberobello, but the houses looked a lot like Hobbit Houses.   Today, I’m just doing a short post of our travels. 

I’m starting to regret all of the rich food and wine and want to give my stomach a rest today.  We are on the road and headed back to the west coast of Italy.   

First stop is Alberobello for some wine tasting and olive oil tasting.  It also turned into a liquor tasting ( I only took a few sips of wine). There goes the stomach resting.  We also had at least about 20 different locally made appetizers.  The town Alberobello is a unesco (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), site for the Trullo (singular) Trulli (plural) homes.   A trullo (plural, trulli) is a traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof. Their style of construction is specific to the Itria Valley, in the Murge area of the Italian region of Apulia. 

When you become a UNESCO site, the preservation of the historic site is the goal.  As you will see in the pictures, the houses are why the town was press.  The poor farmers used to build these houses without cement, using the rocks from the fields and then they would tear them down when the tax collector came around each year.  Taxes originally were paid on if they had a home.  

In addition to stopping, on the ride we learned that there are 20million olive trees in the Pulgia region - where we were.  We learned all about picking olives and the making of olive oil.  They pick the upper olives and prune the branches at the same time.  Extra virgin olive oil is when the olives are picked about 3 months before they are ripe. That is when the vitamins are the best.  

We also learned about the Italian school system- same as us till 14, then they go in a direction of a career  and we learned about the Italian hospital system.  

I threw in the info about what we learn on the bus ride, to give you a taste of how well rounded our trip can be.  

Tomorrow - Matera

I know it looks more like rocks/mountains/hills, right behind me, but it is actually the roof tops of the houses 

Wine tasting 

Roof tops

Zoom in on those funky house/huts in the background. They were all very interesting 

Pretty street