Second Step PugliaSlowTour: Chiesa del Barsento - Monte del Sale - San Leonardo - Alberobello
During the night it rained a little and the air is sparkling. At 8.30 we are all there: there are also Alessandro and Maurizio, two 10 and 6 year old brothers.
They can not wait to get on the bike, but Maurizio is too small and we put it in a child seat on the back of the daddy's bike. Maurizio is very happy.
Before riding, we enjoy the beauty of the Barsento church. The town of Barsento extends between the territories of the communes of Alberobello, Noci, Putignano and Castellana Grotte. The Barsento landmark, of messapic origin, means that it is high, strong. The origin of the place name and the discovery of archaeological finds have led to the origins of the site.
The village grew up in Roman times. The historian Domenico Morea, in 1892, deduced, from the analysis of ancient parchments, that the farmhouse was located along Via Barsentana, at the crossroads of the streets coming from the city of Taranto and the nearby centers of Conversano and Monopoli. According to some local historians, the farmhouse would have been destroyed between the ninth and the eleventh century. The only remaining testimony is the church of S. Maria and the supposed monastery, but there are many hypotheses about their origin.
Today, the church of S. Maria di Barsento shows a cuspid façade, with a single entrance door, preceded by a quadrangular protire, probably dating to the fourteenth-fifteenth century, closed laterally and covered by a rooftop roof. Both the aisle double roof sloping roofs and the prototype roofs are covered by chianche. The prospect ends with a small sailboat, typical of Puglia's rural religious architecture. Three small apses show a semiconic coating, turned with the trellis shell technique. They look to the east: here is the Pirro Channel!
With eyes full of so much beauty, we ride in the saddle and pedal between the districts of St. Leonard and Vaccai of Contessa, between trulli and oaks.
After 5 km we reach a non-asphalted road that leads us to the trulli of B & B Lunalì - Az- agricola Malvisto. The owners, the Jura family, welcome us to their paradise.
Every smell of mint and rosemary ... also their organic oil! Mrs Stella has prepared the necessary for a tasting of her own EVO oil, produced by different cultivars: Cima di Mola, Cima di Melfi, Ogliarola and Leccino. We all like it: it's great!
We are talking about the many features that an extra virgin olive oil has to have: it's a true puggling lesson!
But Mrs Stella made another surprise: she has just baked two fried pots ... what goodness!
The bike calls us and we ride back in the direction of Alberobello. We overtake the railroads of the south-east railroads and in a whirlwind we are at the Trullo Sovereign of the UNESCO city.
Thousands of tourists surround us as we talk about the story of the famous Sylva Arboris Belli.
We continue along the Sanctuary of the Saints Medici, the course, the Belvedere and then the Aia Piccola district. Here we meet the figures of the ASSENCE ARTECA, Association for the Recovery of Traditions and Culture of Alberobello. We seem to live in the '30s between dances and verses in dialect.
We arrive at the Monti district and specifically at Monte Gabriele. Let's go down to an ancient hypogeum crumbling mill nowadays turned into a renowned restaurant: Sunday good lunch all watered by a great bio red wine!
