It's no secret that even though Bari is a capital city (of the Puglia region) it certainly isn’t big like Rome or Milan, nor does it have the amount of tourist attractions cities like Venice or Florence have. Even asking locals what there is to do in this city usually includes them telling you to rent a car and visit someplace else. Not that they don’t want you here, but there are nearby places that do offer some attractions that can be worth the day trip. One such town is that of Alberobello. Even if you have never heard of this town, about 55km out of Bari, you may have seen the typical architecture style that practically defines it and the surrounding region. Since El has to work during the week, we have been trying to plan some day trips on the weekends, and yesterday was Alberobello. My job last week was to figure out how to get there and find a place to have lunch. I was able to figure out what bus to take and I think the best one for us is at 8:00am. I just don’t know where to pick up the bus. I found the top three restaurants in town and sent my reservation request to #1 on Wednesday. The return trip was looking a little more concerning. It looks like there are only three buses a day from Alberobello to Bari. Two are before noon and one at 11:30pm? Could that be right? There are multiple trains that connect the two, so I expect that is how we will get back. By Thursday I have not heard about my lunch reservation. I found another email address for them and sent the same request. On our daily walk on Friday we go to the train station and ask around for bus info and find some people who get us pointed in the right direction. We now knew where to buy our tickets and where to get the bus. Still getting the silent treatment from the restaurant- El tries to call them, but this fails as the number is either disconnected or wrong. Either way, we need to move on to #2. I can’t seem to find any contact info for them, and decide we will reach out on Saturday once we are in town- meanwhile getting our address and pertinent info together for #3. All worked out getting to the bus on time and there were no issues with the hour long ride. On the way I am able to find a listing for restaurant #2 that says it is "temporarily closed". Why/how I didn't see that earlier in the week remains a mystery. We had one less lunch option. Once we get dropped off in the middle of town we make the train station our first stop to buy our return trip ticket and understand the schedule. The station is only two blocks away, but when we arrive, it is completely locked- as in lights out, cashier window shades drawn! No one was around. El is trying to read the posted schedules hanging in the window, but without a clerk, getting a ticket could be a challenge. While she reads I walk around to the tracks and find a self-serve kiosk to buy tickets. We buy the tickets, but as we navigate through the screens we realize these are bus tickets and not train tickets. Oddly, the schedule tells us the bus leaves at 4:55pm- which is great, but I am thoroughly confused about the no train and early bus option. On our way out, tickets in hand, El reads some more posted info that tells us that on the weekends all train service is replaced by bus service. (which makes sense since my research was being done on Tuesday I was getting weekday results). Nonetheless, we head to a nearby café for a cappuccino and download some maps of self guided walking tours. Setting off to see the town we came to explore it seems to be a little bit of a one trick pony. Yes, there are many of the trulli style buildings here, but they all look identical, for the most part and once you have seen 10 or 20 or 30 of them, you’ve sort of seen them all. We spot restaurant #3, but it is closed as we pass, we plan to circle back once we are on the market for lunch. We walk through the town flanked by souvenir shops dotted with cafés. We make it up to the top of the town’s hill and start down the second of the two main streets. El stops into the church, which she reports is very plain inside, with not much more than the fact it is built in the trulli style to make it a stop on the list of things to do in town. Now ready for lunch, we make our way back to #3 only to find a note on the door that says they are closed for the day and will reopen Monday, apologizing for any inconvenience. A three way strike out on one of the ony jobs I had to do this week. We passed a wine shop that had tables set up. We go back to try to figure out what we are going to do for lunch. We are the only customers, making the server/cashier a captive audience for our questions about this town and beyond. When she finds out we are from New York, she has questions about our homeland trading off with answers about her hometown area. We explain our lunch dilemma and she recommends a place called Terra Madre. We are able to do some quick Yelp/Tripadvisor inquiries and find that this place does get great reviews. On the spot, El calls and makes a reservation for us. We finish up our wines and walk to the other side of town for our appointment. The place turns out to be a gem. They market themselves as a “zero kilometer” restaurant, which is the equivalent of our "farm-to-table" moniker. We are seated in the covered area overlooking the restaurant's garden beds. El confirms they have a farm about 4km away for most of their food, but that the bounty grown in these garden beds are indeed used in the restaurant. There are only three options for lunch: vegetable tasting menu, VTM with one entrée, VTM with two entrees. The entrées are listed individually on the menu, but we are not hungry enough for extra entrées and both opt for the vegetable tasting menu- an eight course lunch of well prepared local vegetables. It was quite excellent to say the least. We each got a glass of our favorite local wine and the courses started coming. Roasted beets. Lettuce with caramelized onion and bean puree. Cabbage salad with apples and walnuts. Chard quiche. Red and green cabbage pie. Grilled leeks with potatoes. Fennel gratin. Chickpea puree with rabe and red cabbage cream. Everything very well prepared, but even the best preparation can’t make me like fennel. Luckily, El likes it and takes my share after my initial taste. All in all a great recommendation and one I am surprised I didn't come across in my research to find a lunch place for us. Afterwards, we know we have about 1.5 hours until our bus departs and we try to find a place to sit and have a glass of wine or a cappuccino while we wait. We both think at the same time, that we should go back to the place where the server recommended the great place we just came from. While ordering our wine we are able to tell her that her recommendation was excellent. Before we know it we have to head out and catch our bus. It is on the other side of town, but does not take too long to get there. The bus is on time and we make it back to Bari before 6pm. I reach out to our friend Katrina who agrees to meet us for drinks later where we intend to tell her of the day we have just had.
such unusual architecture, and glad to see the zero kilometer restaurant option!
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