Day 66 Saturday 21st October 2023 - Ostuni & Brindisi
A 35 minute drive and we arrived at Ostuni at 9:20, found a park and set the GPS to guide us to the markets. It was a huge area being utilised, but hardly busting, we think the weather, particularly the wind, has kept shoppers and even traders away. Regardless, there was still an extensive array of fresh fruit and veg, clothing, shoes, bags, haberdashery, hardware, kitchen ware, etc etc. We purchased some bananas and apples - for the first time we were not allowed to select (pick up) our apples, the lady was to do it for us. We smiled at her and she gave us an extra one !! 🙂 (side note: we started making bircher for breakfast, so we also bought a grater)
We then headed for the Centro Storico of Ostuni, famous for its white washed old town and known as the "White City" standing on a hill a few kilometres from the sea. The houses are supposedly painted white each year which helps keep the rooms cool during summer. As we walked through the old town, we did notice quite a few that hadn't been painted for a while ! The white town sitting on the hill creates quite a spectacular scene as you drive toward it from the coast - except for today !!
This is what we could only imagine !
While we got the idea, the dullness of the day didn't really display Ostuni in all its glory to us. The beautiful views over the olive groves toward the sea well - forget it !
Regardless the old town still appealed to us, and was different to any other town we had been to. In Italy, after a while the old town centres can start to be the same ol' same ol', but we enjoyed wandering through the narrow lanes of Ostuni.
A quick lunch of local focaccia and we headed off to Brindisi and arrived at 14:20. We were initally underwhelmed when we arrived, but as with other towns, the further we explored the better it got ! We walked to the port and the famous Roman columns of Brindisi. Being Saturday pm, everything was closed for a few hours so it was a quick visit, a coffee and back in the car to drive back to our base of Monopoli.
We had been lucky and the thunderstorms hadn't eventuated so far, but during the drive back to Monopoli, we got hit with a brief passing storm, thunder and lightning and heavy, heavy rain. So heavy we not only slowed right down but chose to pull over at one stage as visibility became so poor. It passed, and we got back to our apartment safely !
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