Third Step PugliaSlowTour: Alberobello - Mass. Catucci - San Marco

Can you become trulli experts in one day?

They are 8.30 in the point and the appointment is in Alberobello: we are in the true home of the trulli, do you want us to find no serious master? Right at the entrance to the Unesco town we meet the Annese workshop, where Francesco Annese is waiting for us. An expert master with a passionate experience of father to son, Francesco with a few words, but with a clear language of his hands, he shows us how a trullo builds from nothing.

He is so good that he teaches everyone to build a classic Alberobello souvenir: a trullo made with real limestone. is a moment and, with great smile, adults and children, we become all "little" masters!

It's 10 o'clock, it's late: we have to put ourselves on our bikes to reach Chapter Capitol! It does not seem true: not even the time to put on the saddle that we already see a sign that marks the end of the territory of Bari and the beginning of Martina Franca and then of Taranto. We ride between tall oaks, dry stone walls, aie and trulli.

It's hot and finding a fountain in the Puglia Aqueduct seems like a miracle! Indeed the fountain is in front of a church: we are in the Capitol district! We can not stay a lot because there is someone waiting for us. We finally get into an avenue: it's very close between high dry walls and the brewed road ... we arrived! We are at Masseria Catucci, a farmhouse where Antonio transforms her garden products into extraordinary foods. But it is not yet time to eat: someone is waiting for us to work! Let our bikes cool, under a wonderful monumental fragrance. We must reach the vineyard a few meters later. Grape harvest is in place: there is celebration air! The box attached to the tractor at the entrance of the vineyard is already full of bunches of Minutolo grapes, Bianco d'Alessano and especially of the scented Verdeca. We are already drunk, drunk with beauty! Peppino approaches and says, "At this time do you come? We have already finished! Let me sit down with us that we must make the lead. " What a show! The ladies, with the handkerchief in their heads, set up a table of luck and the smell of pasta with basil and coconut tomato and above all the smell of meatballs at the sauce almost almost made us accept the invitation. We reluctantly decline the invitation: Antonio is preparing for us. And then we take advantage of it to make a turn between the freshly cut vines.

Here and there we find some cluster forgotten among the big leaves: by eating some grapes we talk about the DOP Locorotondo, its history and its characteristics. Even the kids are passionate about ... and screaming among the rows, making some photos fill our hearts. We salute the "team" who is still celebrating the end of the vintage work, the mainstay of the story, and return to Masseria.

Coming to the oak where we left our bikes, we are struck by the beauty with which Antonio and his staff had set up our table. We sit on a long orange board, on an ace under the patch of a fragrance surrounded by oaks, olive trees and orchards: "how cool!" - go to someone! It begins with the fragrance of homemade bread and the smoky focaccia, just out of the wood-burning oven; pancakes with strong ricotta cheese, Martina Franca capocollo and stripfish, cheese, wild beans with wild chicory, grilled vegetable vegetables and inevitable zucchini to the poor, all wet with an excellent white wine of the farm. At the center of the table, there are Grottaglie ceramic plates with homemade oregano, tomato and fresh basil: we need to serve these "common" dishes just as they did once. dulcis in the end as second comes the "sheep in the pignata".

A nice return to the past for all: what a good thing! For dessert, almond-shaped figs and chocolate cakes ... and then the waitress arrives with a strange jug: it's the old "chocolate" that kept the coffee warm! It is love at first sight: how good was that coffee poured in this strange way! That hot sun then invited us to stay a bit more to enjoy the "masseria air". We shoot a ball and start playing all together. However, our bikes are waiting for us, and even though we are misguided, we have to pedal: we must reach San Marco, a populous fraction of Locorotondo! During the journey through the Locorotondo districts, we enjoy reading the toponyms: Nunzio, Impicananna, Serio, Montallippo, Ficazza.

It is here that we meet two beautiful asses of Martina Franca who come to our attention lovingly! In the distance we see a huge trully church: San Marco is near! As Francesco Annese had said, "When you arrive in San Marco, you will see great trulli, beautiful ones: there are still the best trullar masters." After a few climbs, here we are at St. Mark's above, where we leave the bikes. On foot we walk through an original pedestrian crossing: it is a passage between beautiful dry walls where only one person passes ... lean for a while!

This little street leads us to the ancient church of the district: it is a jewel with the classic shells in cummersa, with the jolly chiancarelle and at the top a bell tower with the bell playing again pulling the rope from the inside. It's 3:30 pm and there is a magistrale silence. But with all these emotions we can only be "voices" and laughs and hugs take a group photo that will remain in the heart of everyone.