So what do we mean by the heel of Italy, for those who don’t know, if you look at a map of Italy, it looks like a boot, so after leaving Croatia, exploring the heel of Italy was our first destination. The boot area has also a very different feel from the rest of Italy, due to the different rulers who have controlled it over the centuries, the Greeks, Romans, Spanish, Turks, the Byzantines, and even the Norman’s at one stage to name a few, so many more diverse influences than elsewhere in Italy.
Our ferry ride across the Adriatic was as smooth as glass, the only problem we had was in Bari, Italy. Which if it didn’t have a ferry port, tourists would never visit. So in typical Italian efficiency they had two passport controllers for three car ferries arriving at once, needless to say it took over an hour to exit the port in the car, so much for a quick getaway. So back into Italy we go, our first stop Alberobello home of some unique buildings for Italy.

In Alberobello, they have developed a cone shaped roof made of small bricks. The idea behind it is if they were about to be attacked, they could remove the keystone brick and it would collapse giving the impression it was a ruin. Though knowing that the locals had houses of that design, wouldn’t the invaders simply go check anyway and on top of that you have a house you need to rebuild? So we’re not sure how successful they were with this defense? While they cover the local area around Alberobello there is a street of them in the centre of the town somewhere, and somewhere they remain as we drove around those busy little streets a few times before giving up trying to find them. However we did find some nice ones in an olive grove not too far out of town.

For those Aussies and Kiwi’s reading this, our next stop was Gallipoli; yes, there is more than one Gallipoli in the world. This one is located in the gulf of Taranto, though the journey there was not the smoothest particularly around the city of Taranto, which were in dire need of maintenance, though further south we did travel over some surprising well maintained small country roads (interesting, in that area they also called their normal dual carriageway roads; superstrada’s?). The actual town of Gallipoli is an old medieval port, set on an island with cobblestone streets and a high rampart that acts as a sea wall for the medieval village, its joined to the new city by a small bridge linking the old and new city. A stop for lunch and a walk around the city, like many of the other little medieval villages or quarters of cities we visit, it didn’t take long. It was very warm during our time there as the city had little or no shade, especially along the seaward ramparts (walls), which we thought would make it an oppressive place to be in the middle of summer, even with a sea breeze.

Our last night on the Adriatic Sea and our last stop in the heel was the little town of Otranto. Otranto is a seaside-fortified port, with a long history dating back to the Ancient Greek when it was called Hydruntum. The guide book we read described Otranto as a bastion against the Turks, though if you check the history books you’ll see they weren’t that successful at it, with the city being taken in 1480 by the Turks, who put all the men to death and we won’t go into what happened to the women. Needless to say it was rebuilt and is a very nice little town with a cute little port and a small castle within the city walls. The town had a very interesting cathedral where the roof had amazing pattern, there was a crypt where every column was different and in one small alter there was three windows full of human bones! From its ramparts on a clear day you can see the mountains of Albania across the Adriatic Sea, it wasn’t clear the day we were there. We found a nice little hotel next to the city walls, but ran into a little hiccup when we wanted dinner as we got hungry earlier than the restaurants opened (they normally open up around 7.30pm), so it was a bit of a challenge to find one to eat at. Luckily we did find one that opened a little earlier than the others.