Locorotundo & Marina Franca and back again

We did a loop ride today through rolling country- mostly downhill at first!

We continue to be dazzled  by the beauty of the wildflowers and the craftsmanship of the dry stone walls – which are everywhere.

We stopped at Locorotundo – not the town of the mad fat person, but round place – as the streets go round and round as we found out!

We were told that this is the most beautiful town in Italy. Whitewashed buildings in narrow passageways – they don’t let not having gardens stop their horticultural and artistic expression.

And every corner in the white maze of streets gives another pretty view

The church was baroque

with the obligatory anguished Madonna (a la goth)

The houses aren’t Trulli here but comensare which means they have a triangular gable with the usual stone roof. We liked this dragon:

We also found a 4th century church – very simple and elegant with interesting capitols / added later I’m sure

And a statue of Prince Philip of Tananto who brought this area its wealth in the 14th century.

We had a lovely view over to Marina Franca which looked quite hilly

We didn’t go directly there as our route went via a lovely cycle path along the modern aquaduct which was nice and flattish.

We saw some amazing irises

although David got a little tired of me stopping to take flower pictures.

After a rather steep climb (!!) we arrived at Martina Franca, here since the 6th century as a tiny hamlet but came into its glory days thanks to Prince Phillip of Taranto who made it a tax centre in 1310 hence the name.

In the 18th century Baroque arrived and gave the town a beautiful cathedral and many huge municipal palaces.

The cathedral had an amazing 18th century Marie Antoinette style Madonna doing the shepherdess thing (!)

And olive oil offerings of course

We got slightly lost here too and had a very welcome lunch at the ‘Pane, Amore et Fantasia’ café – we just don’t do names as well as they do here! Or notices (!)

Only special cars are allowed in

Back on the bike – my back had been much better this morning but not so good in the pommerigio – we stopped for the now necessary siesta and later for a trullo sketch.

Here is a cow, calves, dog and puppies

The hills are very rolling and the route has been well thought out with hardly any traffic and mostly tiny roads – although they could do something about the hills…

Back in Trulli land we walked around the surreal old town of Alberobello where we are staying, originally built in the 18th century by craftsmen who really needed to get rid of all that stone lying around in their fields!

It’s ‘hobbits do stone’ says David.