Adventures in Poolia

I just got back to Bologna after spending the Easter holiday in Bari, which is one of the biggest cities in Puglia. That's the incredibly gorgeous region that makes up the heel of the boot, if you think of Italy like that.

I left for the trip hoping to take photos of the port area, for my Gallatin Senior's grant. Bari is the site of a famous detention center for immigrants and the coast is a major destination for undercover, overloaded boats full of people trying to enter Italy. This is partly because of its location - close to lots of different places (as you can see from this photo), accessible by boat, and monitored by pretty much no one.

Taking photos was interesting, especially because ports, as I learned, are very bizarre places. Full of strange people.

However, I was lucky enough to have lots of other adventures, because a friend of a friend, Antonino (a terrific name, I think) is from right outside Bari. Southerners are so hospitable and excited to show off their region. He took very good care of me! First we went to a procession in Bari's old town, which was constructed to look like a maze to protect the inhabitants from invaders. It's supposed to be one of the easiest places to get lost in the entire country. Also, Anto told me that it's usually guarded by the Mafia and difficult to enter. That is, if you try to walk around freely in some of the tiny narrow streets, the residents will do their best to make you feel unwelcome. That didn't happen to us, though because it was Easter weekend!
This is what happens on Good Friday.

The statues were pretty amazing. Every little town has its own particular statues, which must leave the church in a procession. The streets were absolutely packed.


Puglia is just beautiful. The water, the flowers, the wildlife, everything. Lots of the buildings are made out of white stone, which makes a striking contrast with the blue water and cloudless sky.




Too bad it wasn't quite warm enough to swim.


One of the best - of not THE best - aspects of the trip was the food. Anto's best friends from childhood are in the process of opening up a wine bar in a pretty seaside town named Polignano. Through them, he knows quite a bit about food, and good places to get it. On my first night in Bari we went to a little restaurant in Polignano where we ate ragu. Made from donkey. I thought it was a joke, and I know it's terrible, but it was actually good! How could I not try it? I was actually more scandalized by the appetizer we were given, which was a bunch of massive mozzarella balls filled with liquid cream. When you stick your fork into the mozzarella ball, it bursts. It was a little bit too much, I think.

The seafood in Puglia is yummy, too. But the best meal I had was with Anto's friends, at their house in the country. They're still developing the menu for their wine bar, so we were very kind and we helped them taste-test about 7 different cheeses. My favorite was the goat cheese, which was super rich and sort of like butter. In addition we had oranges and lemons - picked from the trees in the garden. And olive oil made from, of course, olives from the garden. It was amazing. Alessandra, one of our hosts, taught me a cool trick with tomatoes - in summer she grows lots of cherry tomatoes, which she hangs from a string in the kitchen throughout the winter. They slowly dry out and turn, almost, into sun-dried tomatoes. We ate them in pasta and they were great. So was a calzone her grandmother makes for Easter, which is made from onions, raisins, and anchovies. It sounds crazy but all the flavors actually go well together, when you're eating it. I would've been happy to stay there for a looong time.



Finally, on Easter morning, when everything was closed and I was starving, I found a Sicilian bakery that was open and completely crowded. Where I ate a huge pastry and cannoli, too, which were so good. Mikey, I did it for you. I felt kind of sick afterwards but it was worth it. The bakery was full of all kinds of Sicilian specialties, like cardamom flavored chocolate and rose liqueur. Hooray Sicily!



Now it's back to city life. Speaking of which, I'm all out of order with my blogging, but Milan is coming next.