Day Trip to the Murgia, 2

The Murgia area of Apulia is a high tableland with two distinct patterns of vegetation. The area we hiked through on Saturday is green and rich in a wide variety of plants, thanks in part to the abundant rains we have had this year. The other area of the Murgia is practically barren with only scrub brush and the occasional tree.

The top photo shows the point at which we started our hike.

Each of us had our own walking stick, not so much because the terrain was difficult, but to chase off any snakes we might have run into...luckily, we didn't meet up with any snakes at all! The stone structure in the background here is an abandoned farmhouse.

A great deal of the Murgia is active farmland and the bright green field in this photo is a crop of new wheat.

What looks like a pile of stones is actually a falling down trullo house. You can see the ancient stone walls used to create terracing for crops on the far hill.

This is another vast field of new wheat nestled between the woods and an uncultivated hill covered with the the wild plants native to the area.

Day Trip to the Murgia

April 25th is the day on which Italians celebrate the Nazi occupation army leaving northern Italy in 1945 after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement. This day is taken as symbolic of the Liberation of Italy and is a national holiday.

As usual, Molfettans celebrate their holidays by eating and, weather permitting, spending the day in the countryside.

We celebrated by having a picnic with friends on the Alta Murgia, a tableland area inland from Molfetta.

The first photo shows a Molfettan style calzone, which is sort of like a pie stuffed with onions, fish, black olives, tomatoes and raisins. If I have time, I will post the recipe on my other blog, Amid the Olive Trees, tomorrow.

Other items on the menu included ham, salami, spicy cheese, breaded chicken cutlets, mozzarella, homemade bread and taralli, fresh fennel, fresh fava beans... I must be forgetting something...

Dessert was a "Colomba," the traditional Italian Easter cake made in the shape of a dove, accompanied by limoncello, a lemon liquor.



Over the next few days I'll show you more photos of this beautiful natural area, famous for wild asparagus and cardoncello mushrooms.

Wildflower

I'm hopeless with flower names...can anyone identify this beauty?

Wisteria

Entrance Hall, 2

This entrance hall is located on Via Santa Scolastica, in the "Camere Nuove" area of town. The Camere Nuove, or "New Rooms" were the first homes built beyond the limits of the Old Town. You can't see this entryway from the street as it's hidden behind a large "portone," which is the building's main door. The style of this entry is quite different from the modern one I featured in an earlier post. I know which of the two I prefer, but take a look at the other one and let me know what you think.

This building was the birthplace of Leonardo Azzarita, a famous journalist born in Molfetta in 1888, he died in Rome in 1976. He wrote for and directed several national newspapers, was president of news services and journalistic associations. His son, Manfredi, who was a member of the Resistence during WWII, died at the Fosse Ardeatine (1944).

Saint Scholastica, just in case you're wondering, was the twin sister of Saint Benedict and led a religious community of women in central Italy in the early 500s. She is the patron saint of nuns and convulsive children and is invoked against storms and rain. Read more about her here.

Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and Print Shop

As promised, today's photo features Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. There's not much to it beyond what you can see right here in the photo, it's quite small. The piazza is completely fenced, all the way around, and is furnished with a locked gate, a guard and a small guardhouse. The guard locks and unlocks the gates at certain times and generally lurks around keeping his turf clean and free of potential delinquents.

I rarely ever actually see anyone inside this square. Maybe all the fencing and locks are a bit off-putting...

Beyond the park, you can see a lovely rooftop garden above an old print shop, or "tipografia."

Vittorio Emanuele II

This statue of Victor Emmanuel II, the Father of the Fatherland, unified Italy's first king and symbol of the Risorgimento era, gazes upon a bus-stop and has his back turned on a cute little park that I'll show you tomorrow. He is located, appropriately enough, on Via Vittorio Emanuele II at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II.

For more information on the man, click on this link.