Monday April 10, 2023
We got to bed about 2230 putting us firmly in the Italy time zone. Carol woke up at 0200 and tells me stay in bed, it’s only 0200. I woke up at 0500, back to bed. We both woke up around 0800, stayed in bed and next thing we knew, we had fallen asleep again and it was after 1000. Slowly we got up and out into the rainy day around 1130. Easter Monday is an official holiday here and the Italians are out with their sea of umbrellas. We just have our raincoats which work very well. We walk to the main Piazza, Piazza Liberta and check out the Church of San Francesco di Assisi. It was built in 1304. The altar has a beautiful statue of the Virgin Mary signed by Giacomo Colombo in 1719 framed by green marble. There are statues in Carrara marble of San Francesco d’Assisi, on the left, and Sant’Antonio di Padova, on the right.
From here, we walk up to the Cathedral which unfortunately is closed today. The cathedral was built from 1437 to 1495 and is adorned with a large rose window in front. Behind it is the Arco Scoppa which was originally a wooden bridge between the palaces of the Bishop and the Seminary and later was replaced by a the stone structure we see today.
We continue to stroll around down side streets and find a view over olive fields out to the sea. We search for a few restaurants on our list and the search down alleys and unnamed streets proves more difficult than expected. We do find one or two but they are closed and there is no indication if they will open tonight. We go back to the apartment to freshen up and come up with a plan to wander some more and look for a pastry shop for tomorrows train ride and/or a grocery store. We also have two more restaurants to check out. We head out to first scout our route to the train station tomorrow. As we finish our scout, it starts to rain pretty hard. Undeterred with our gore Tex jackets we press on trying to weave our way down the streets. We find one restaurant address to discover it no longer exists. The pastry shop is closed as well as the grocery stores because it is Easter Monday.
We walk and find the last restaurant on our list and I ask if they are open for dinner but they are not. We are wet, it is warm inside and I ask if we can sit down and eat now. They accommodate us even though it is the end of their lunch hours. We order an antipasto platter, lasagna, eggplant parmigiana, and a half liter of negroamare house wine. The antipasto platter is amazing, prosciutto, local ham, two types of salami, Pecorino Romano, a local cheese with a wonderful jam to put on it, and what we think is local fresh ricotta. Everything was good and by the time we left at 1630, the sun was coming out.
We did an evening passiegetta with the local Italians before heading back for the evening at 1800. Not a bad day considering the weather and getting over jet lag. I will end with a little history of the town. Ostuni has been settled since the Stone Age and was destroyed by Hannibal. The Greeks rebuilt it and gave it its name. After the Roman Empire, the Normans took over and fortified the city. The town flourished until the plague. Infected houses were whitewashed with chalky paint and it turned out calcium in the paint had antibacterial properties. And those living near the whitewashed houses were not contracting the plague. Most homes are still white today, hence the nickname of the white city. That’s all for today. Tomorrow we move on to Otranto, on the Adriatic Sea.
Expenses Dinner at Terra Nostra 47E L’Alcova di Garibaldi Studio Apartment 55E Walked 7.0 Miles
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