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TRAVEL FEATURE - ITALY EMILIO SALVATORI ( w ) / CHRISTINA ZOLI ( p )
YOU CHOOSE , YOU COOK , YOU EAT !
They say that the construction technique was perfected when , in the fifteenth century , to escape the taxes of the Kingdom of Naples which had imposed taxes on each new urban settlement , the people began to use dry stone so as to be able to quickly dismantle the houses and not pay the taxes due to the King . The occupants would simply remove the keystone and the whole house would be reduced to a pile of rubble .
Whether truth or legend , today there are thousands of ‘ trulli ’ scattered in the Puglia countryside south of Bari , in what is called the Valle d ' Itria . It is a splendid place , both for the expanse of olive trees that stain the intense red of the earth with green , and for the unique and enchanted villages that with their blinding white make this territory unique .
Leaving behind the beauty and contradictions of a large city like
Bari , we began to descend the coast towards the south , soon arriving in front of the spectacle of Polignano a Mare , where the immaculate white houses overlook the blue sea . A spectacle that is repeated following the coast road to Monopoli , capable of transmitting , with its port made alive by boats and fishermen , a poetic picture that fascinates and enchants .
But if the sea is magnificent , no less so is the inland towards which we ventured to discover the village of Castellana , made unique by the presence of its karst caves which make it one of the most beautiful speleological complexes in Italy .
The caves are the result of the action of underground rivers that have dug the intimacy of the limestone rock that characterises this part of Puglia , leaving a unique and unmissable spectacle due to the vastness and beauty of its natural galleries . We came across it along
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