Day 34 - Matera to Alberobello

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

Actual Distance Walked: 13.7kn, Actual Time Taken: 3h 58m
Planned Distance: 13.5km, Estimated Time: 3h 48m

Today was a gorgeous day for hiking.  Clear skies and mild temperatures.  Tomorrow promises to be more of the same.  It isn't warm enough yet to wear any of the t-shirts I packed, but I can imagine wearing one sometime on this holiday now.

The title of this entry is a little misleading.  I didn't walk the whole way from Matera to Alberobello.  Instead, we were (Keith, Kim and myself) were picked up and driven for about 1 hour to the starting point.  The end of our hike was in the town of Locorotondo.  From there we got public transport to Alberobello.

The pick up process didn't work smoothly.   My route instructions said the driver would pick me up from my hotel.  I was a little dubious as you can't actually drive up to my hotel but I dutifully waited (and waited).  When he was about 10 minutes late I called the local company would is dealing with the day to day management of this hike.  With a mix of broken Italian (me) and broken English (Massimo) I learnt the driver was waiting for me at a nearby piazza.  It was a good thing I had a local phone.

The bulk of the walk today was along the top of an acqueduct.  I had visions of Roman archways but it was a dirty great pipe that had been buried underground and we walked along the dirt top.  Still, it was easy walking and the woods were full of wildflowers.  Very pretty.

I walked today with the Kiwi couple, Keith and Kim.  Keith's paternal grandfather came from northen Italy but you would never pick it from his looks.  He seems pure Anglo-Saxon. They are a pleasant couple and walk at my pace, which is convenient.  We didn't see anyone else going in our direction but we did encountered 3 different groups of French tourists going the other way.  There are a lot of French tourists in Puglia for some reason.  Far many more than I saw in Bologna.  Most of the tourists in Bologna were other Italians.

Our route instructions have clearly been translated from Italian into English with the aid of Google Translate.  At one point we crossed the "suggestive San Marco bridge".  We were deeply disappointed to not find anything particularly suggestive about the bridge, although it was quite impressive.   I've since discovered that the Italian word "suggestivi" can be translated as "suggestive" but more correctly means "evocative" or "striking".  What a disappointment.

We got to Locorotondo around 2:30pm. It is a very pretty town (at least the historic centre is) but nothing too unusual.  We wandered around it a little bit and got a gelati before heading for the railway station for a train to Alberobello, which is our stop for the night.  However, there is only 1 train an hour and we had just missed it.  We went to the bus stop instead and after about 20 minutes, flagged down a train-replacement bus.  Apparently, this was a naughty thing to do.  The train-bus only stops at pre-booked stops, which of course we hadn't done.  The driver let us on as he could see we were clueless tourists and he was stopping at Alberobello anyway.  Everyone I've met here in Puglia has been friendly and willing to help tourists.  A key part of their economy the cynic in me says.

Our hotel here is on the outskirts of town about 800m from the historic centre.  Even though the town is small we managed to get lost walking into the centre and then home again after dinner.  Still, this town is worth a visit.  Unlike Locorotondo it is special.  The build this odd homes called trulli with conical roofs.   

There are plenty of tourists here.  It must be thoroughly unpleasant in the summer time.  Most of the historic centre is full of shops selling tacky souvenirs.  If you can make it in the shape of a trulli, then they do.  You can even get one painted in your soccer team colours.  Why I'm not sure.

After an amble around the streets of trulli we went in search of dinner.  We settled on the Trattoria Amatrulli as it was advertised as having local dishes. Here I found Keith&Kim's first flaw.  They rarely drink alcohol and generally only eat one course at dinner, perhaps with a side salad.  I convinced them to share a large plate of salami & cheese as an antipasto but they didn't even spend 10 seconds considering whether or not to have dessert.

Tomorrow is the longest day of walking on this route - 19km.  We leave from here but have to catch a train back.  There is a train around 2:30pm but then the next two are around 4:30pm and 5:30pm.  I expect we'll end up getting the later one of the two.