TRAVERSE Issue 37 - August 2023 | Page 93

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greenery , seem to emerge more from a book of fairy tales than from real life , until we reached the town which is the real apotheosis of this type of construction that is lost in the dawn of our Mediterranean civilisation , the town of Alberobello .
Having parked the motorbike , the advice was to go up to the terrace of Santa Lucia to enjoy the spectacle of the Monti district that stretches over the hill at a glance . Over a thousand trulli were now in front of us , close to each other but also different to the next . To remain enchanted then , when you meet the drawings that stand out in white against the gray of the roofs of the buildings which , just like the pinnacles placed on the top of the conical roof , seem to originate from primitive , magical , and unknown symbology .
Leaving Alberobello , the town of Locorotondo is the first of the Apulian " white cities " that we met .
We reached it on the SP172 and there it was over there , in the background , leaping towards us , perched on the top of a hill from which the dazzling white glow of the lime-washed houses shone . Its historic centre was worth visiting , perhaps getting lost in the labyrinth of alleys overlooked by houses characterised by sloping roofs and succulent or coloured plants that decorate the windowsills and stairs . Not far away was Martina Franca . We entered its historic heart by crossing the eighteenth-century Porta di Santo Stefano to meet the imposing Palazzo Ducale , built on the site where the ancient castle once stood . Marvelous is Piazza Maria Immacolata under whose arcades some local gastronomic specialties await us such as capocolle , a cured meat obtained from the upper part of the neck and shoulder of the pig , or mozzarella which in Puglia boasts ancient dairy traditions .
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